Value of serum human epididymis protein 4 and cancer antigen 125 markers in prediction of ovarian cancer

Objective To explore the value of serum human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) and cancer antigen 125 (CA125) in the prediction of ovarian cancer onset risk. Methods Petected the expression of HE4 by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and CA 125 by electrochemiluminescence (ECL) in serum of 75 samples of ovarian cancer (ovarian cancer group),132 samples of ovarian benign disease (ovarian benign disease group) and 30 samples of healthy women (control group),calculated the sensitivity and specificity of HE4 and CA125 in the prediction of ovarian cancer onset risk,and drew receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results The expression of serum HE4 and CA125 were both higher in ovarian cancer group than those in ovarian benign disease group and control group (P ＜ 0.05 ). HE4 was a better index in the prediction of ovarian cancer onset risk than CA 125 (ROC area under curve was 0.966 and 0.905 respectively). The expression of HE4 was various in different pathological types,serous ovarian adenocarcinoma had the highest expression of HE4 (100.0% ,42/42). The sensitivity of diagnosing ovarian cancer by HE4 was 86.7%(65/75), 93.3%(70/75) by HE4 combining and/or CA125,there was no significant difference(P＞0.05).Conclusion Serum HE4 could be a good index of predicting the onset risk of ovarian cancer,the combination of HE4 and/or CA125 could not increase the sensitivity of prediction of ovarian cancer significantly. Key words: Ovarian neoplasms; CA-125 antigen; Human epididymis protein 4