CA-125 Concentrations in Patients Awaiting Cardiac Transplantation

CA-125 (cancer antigen or carbohydrate antigen) is a high-molecular weight glycoprotein most appropriately used for monitoring treatment response and recurrence of ovarian carcinoma, with concentrations >35 units/mL indicating residual tumor. Serum concentrations have also been shown to correlate with ovarian tumor mass. Increases, although usually not as marked, have been seen in other conditions such as lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, abdominal miliary tuberculosis, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and during ovulation in 1–2% of healthy women. Therefore, this serum marker is not recommended as a screening test for ovarian carcinoma (1)(2)(3). Recently, at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, CA-125 was inadvertently ordered on a male heart failure …