Profiling of serum tumor markers in patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma

Abstract

To investigate whether the change of serum tumor markers profile after chemotherapy in epithelial ovarian carcinoma and evaluate the clinical significance. The levels of CA(125), CA(19-9) and CP2 before and after initial surgery, during primary chemotherapy and follow-up were serially measured and analyzed retrospectively in 28 cases of recurrent epithelial ovarian carcinoma patients and 20 cases of primary chemo-resistant ovarian carcinoma patients from Jan 1999 to July 2007. According to whether the change of serum tumor markers profile, all the patients were divided into two groups: marker changed-group and marker un-changed group. The average follow up period was 25 months. (1) The changes of tumor marker profile were included the number and(or) types of markers, which included 13 cases (46%, 13/28) of the recurred cases and 9 cases (45%, 9/20) of the primary chemo-resistant cases. (2) For recurrent ovarian carcinoma changed tumor marker profile, the highest pathology type was serous histological type (77%, 10/13), while was mucinous histological type (4/9) for primary chemo-resistant patients. (3) For recurred patients, the median progression-free survival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS) in marker changed-group (22.2 and 60.0 months) were significantly longer than that in marker un-changed group (17.4, 46.0 months; P < 0.05). For primary chemo-resistant ovarian carcinoma patients, median OS in marker changed-group (15.9 months) was significantly shorter than that in marker un-changed group (25.0 months; P < 0.05). The profile of serum tumor makers in epithelial ovarian carcinoma may be changed after chemotherapy, which should be concomitantly determinate different serum tumor markers for monitoring the response to chemotherapy and follow-up of patients.