Abstract
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the expression of the biomarkers CA125 and HE4 combined with imaging, in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Forty-six women with EOC were included in the study all affected with peritoneal carcinomatosis. Twenty-two of 46 patients (group I) had peritoneal carcinomatosis with small implants in single or in multiple sites (score 1); 24/46 patients (group II) had macro-nodular implants and omental thickening (score 2). High levels of CA125 (350 ± 11, mean ± SEM) have been observed in 21/22 patients of group I, and a similar value (370 ± 13) has been observed in all patients belonging to group II. HE4 positivity values (350 ± 9) have been observed in all group I patients, whereas all patients belonging to group II showed a higher value of HE4 (600 ± 12). Statistically significant differences were observed between the HE4 levels observed in group I patients in comparison with group II patients (p < 0.0001). In addition, we expressed the extension of lymph nodal disease in three scores: L1–L2–L3, and a statistically significant correlation was observed between high HE4 levels and severity of lymph nodal disease L3 (p < 0.0001). The availability of biomarkers, particularly HE4, together with sophisticated imaging techniques, strengthens the clinical relevance of this study, for the follow-up of patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis.
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This study is funded by the University of Rome “Sapienza”. We are thankful to Giuseppina Gennarini, Barbara Colaprisca, Silvestra Tudini and Pasqualina Moro for their technical assistance.
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Emanuela Anastasi and Teresa Granato contributed equally to this work.
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Midulla, C., Manganaro, L., Longo, F. et al. HE4 combined with MDCT imaging is a good marker in the evaluation of disease extension in advanced epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Tumor Biol. 33, 1291–1298 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-012-0376-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-012-0376-5