HE4: really a novel biomarker for ovarian cancer?

Ovarian cancer forms 4% of all cancers and approximately 23% of all gynecological cancers in women and is responsible for the 47% of deaths related to cancers of the genital tract of women. Tumor markers are the biochemical substances which can be detected in the presence of tumors. Generally they are either the products of tumoral tissues or secreted from the normal cells which are in the interaction with tumoral ones. The present authors attempted to determine the efficacy of the tumor marker CA-125 and HE4 to differentiate the malign cases from the benign adnexal masses. A total of 76 patients with the appropriate criteria were included in the study. They were divided into three groups; healthy control group (n=31), ones with benign masses (n=23), and ones with malign ovarian masses (n=22). In the study, when the cut-off values were accepted as 55I U/ml for CA-125 and 150 pM for HE4 in differentiation of benign and malign groups, the sensitivity was found as 59.09%, specificity 91.3%, PPV 86.67% and NPV 70% LR = +6.8. This combination gives one false positive result to every five positive cases which were detected as high. With the combination of CA-125 and HE4, the value of sensitivity was found decreased as expected, although the value of the specificity increased.

Tumor markers; HE4; CA-125; Adnexal mass; Ovarian cancer.

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