Expression of human epididymal protein 4 in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer and its effect on prognosis

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of human epididymal protein 4 (HE4) and its effect on prognosis in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Methods From 2009 to 2014, ninety-eight cases of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC group) and 29 cases of benign ovarian tumor (benign group) and 100 healthy subjects (control group) were selected as research subjects.The serum HE4 was detected by double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the positive expression was determined by HE4>150 pmol/L in serum.The concentration and positive rate of serum HE4 were compared among the three groups.The median serum HE4 level of EOC patients before treatment was divided into high level HE4 group and low level HE4 group.The median survival time of the two groups of EOC patients was compared. Results The median value of serum HE4 concentration (four percentile) in EOC group was 421.8 (68.7 ~ 2173.9) pmol/L, 47.8 (35.24 ~ 68.5) pmol/L in the benign group and 43.8 (32.91 ~ 70.4) pmol/ L in the control group.The serum concentration of HE4 in the EOC group was significantly higher than that in the benign group and the control group (P=0.000). The serum HE4 concentration in group EOC was significantly higher than that in benign group and control group (P 0.05). The positive rate of serum HE4 in the EOC group was 74.5 (73/98), the positive rate of the benign group and the control group were 0, the difference between the three groups was statistically significant (P=0.000). The positive rate of serum HE4 in the EOC group was significantly higher than that in the benign group and the control group (P 0.05). The median survival time of EOC patients in low level HE4 group was 66.2 months, while that in high level HE4 group was 36.9.The difference between two groups was statistically significant (P=0.001). Conclusion The serum HE4 level of EOC patients was significantly higher than that of patients with benign ovarian tumors and healthy controls.The higher serum HE4 level, the worse the prognosis, and the shorter the survival time of patients.Therefore, the expression level of serum HE4 can be used for the diagnosis and prognosis of ovarian cancer. Key words: Epithelial ovarian cancer; human epididymis protein 4; carbohydrate antigen 125; survival time