Lysophosphatidic acid: an ovarian cancer marker.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) can serve as an ovarian cancer marker, we compared plasma LPA levels in ovarian cancer patients, in women with no ovarian pathology, and in women with benign ovarian tumors. We determined the optimal plasma LPA level cutoff value and correlated clinicopathological parameters with plasma LPA levels. METHOD: Capillary electrophoresis with indirect ultraviolet detection was used to analyze the plasma LPA levels of 133 patients (60 patients with ovarian cancer, 43 women without ovarian pathologies and 30 patients with benign ovarian tumors) during a three-year period. RESULTS: Patients with ovarian cancer had a significantly higher plasma LPA level (n=60, median (med) 16.99 micromnol/l, range 4.53-43.21 micromol/l) compared with controls with no ovarian pathology (n=43, med 2.92 micromol/l, range 0.94-22.93 micromnol/l) and patients with benign ovarian tumor (n=30, med 7.73 micromol/l, range 1.12-28.84 micromol/l) (p < 0.001). We found that plasma LPA levels were associated with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage and ovarian cancer histological type. Patients with endometrial ovarian cancer had significantly higher plasma LPA levels in comparison with other histological types of epithelial ovarian carcinoma. CONCLUSION: The plasma LPA level can be a useful marker for ovarian cancer, particularly in the early stages of disease.