CA125 and HE4: Measurement Tools for Ovarian Cancer

AIMS: This study aimed to examine the clinical significance of carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) and human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) serum levels in combination for ovarian cancer detection in patients. METHODS: In total, 75 patients with ovarian cancer, 86 patients with benign ovarian tumors, 75 patients with endometriosis and 34 healthy women (as a control group) were selected from January 2012 to July 2015 at Anhui province hospitals. The sensitivity and specificity of detection of CA125, HE4 and combined CA125 + HE4 in serum were analyzed for each group. RESULTS: HE4 and CA125 serum levels in the ovarian cancer group were higher than those in the other 3 groups (p < 0.001). The sensitivity of CA125 was higher than that of HE4 (88.2 vs. 54.7%, respectively), whereas the specificity of HE4 was higher than that of CA125 (97.9 vs. 67.4%, respectively). In contrast, the sensitivity and specificity of HE4 combined with CA125 were 82.7 and 91.4%, respectively. The receiver operating characteristic-area under the curve values of HE4, CA125 and HE4 + CA125 were 0.889, 0.893 and 0.925, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Combined detection of CA125 with HE4 can improve the sensitivity and specificity of ovarian cancer diagnosis and has certain clinical significance that can guide treatment planning.