The efficacy of YKL-40 and CA125 as biomarkers for epithelial ovarian cancer.

Abstract

Our objective was to estimate the efficacy of the measurement of serum YKL-40 alone or with CA125 as biomarkers for the diagnosis of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) using the YKL-40 ELISA kit. An experimental group of 49 ovarian cancer patients included 42 patients with EOC (53 ± 15 years, range: 19-81 years) and 7 patients (48 ± 13 years, range: 29-36 years) with borderline epithelial ovarian tumor. A control group of 88 non-malignant cases included 42 patients (43 ± 10 years, range: 26-77 years) with benign gynecological disease and 46 healthy women (45 ± 14 years, range: 30-68 years) at a teaching hospital. Both YKL-40 (220.1 ± 94.1 vs 61.6 ± 48.4 and 50.1 ± 41.2 ng/mL) and CA125 (524.9 ± 972.5 vs 13.4 ± 7.6 and 28.5 ± 29.6 U/mL) levels were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in patients with ovarian cancer compared to the healthy and non-malignant groups. YKL-40 had 92.9% sensitivity and 94.4% specificity for the diagnosis of EOC. When YKL-40 and CA125 were tested in parallel, the sensitivity was increased to 98.2%, but the specificity was decreased to 81.3%. The correlations between serum YKL-40 and tumor stage, grade histology, performance status, patient age, and extension of debulking surgery were tested. With increasing stage and grade of EOC, preoperative serum YKL-40 levels were significantly increased (P = 0.029, P = 0.05, respectively). Serum YKL-40 alone or with serum CA125 levels are useful, although with some limitations, to diagnose ovarian cancer. Our study showed that YKL-40 may not be an independent prognostic factor for ovarian cancer. This prospective study may be a new trend in looking for biomarkers that optimize diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

• Authors: L Zou, X He, J W Zhang
• Journal: Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologicas (Braz J Med Biol Res) Vol. 43 Issue 12 Pg. 1232-8 (Dec 2010) ISSN: 1414-431X [Electronic] Brazil
• PMID: 21103788 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Biomarkers, Tumor
• CA-125 Antigen
• Glycoproteins

Topics

• Adult
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Biomarkers, Tumor (blood)
• CA-125 Antigen (blood)
• Carcinoma, Ovarian Epithelial
• Case-Control Studies
• Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
• Female
• Glycoproteins (blood)
• Humans
• Middle Aged
• Neoplasm Staging
• Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial (diagnosis)
• Ovarian Neoplasms (diagnosis)
• Prognosis
• ROC Curve
• Sensitivity and Specificity
• Young Adult