Highly elevated serum CA-125 levels in patients with non-malignant gynecological diseases.
OBJECTIVE
To identify patients with highly elevated serum CA-125 levels and analyze their clinical characteristics.


METHODS
Patients with non-malignant gynecologic disease (NMGDs, n = 41), in whom serum CA-125 levels were over 1,000 IU/ml were retrospectively enrolled in the study. Seventy-one patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), in whom, serum CA-125 levels were over 1,000 IU/ml were included as the comparison group. Clinical parameters were compared between the two groups.


RESULTS
In NMGDs group, 43.90% of the patients had endometriosis. The median of serum CA-125 level in NMGDs was much lower than that of EOC subjects (P < 0.001). Compared to EOC group, the patients in NMGDs group were much younger (P < 0.001) and had fewer histories of pelvic masses (P < 0.001) but had more clinical complaints such as acute abdominal symptoms (P < 0.001) and/or abnormal vaginal bleeding (P = 0.022). Clinical progresses of these two groups were correlated with changes of serum CA-125 levels by follow-up for up to 386 days.


CONCLUSIONS
High levels of serum CA-125 were found not only in the EOC, but also in some NMGDs, especially in the reproductive patients with complaints of acute abdomen symptoms or abnormal vaginal bleeding.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310006, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.
Rong-Huan
RH
He
Wei-Miao
WM
Yao
Li-Yan
LY
Wu
Yu-Yan
YY
Mao
D000006:Abdomen, Acute / Q000453:epidemiology; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D018394:CA-125 Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007889:Leiomyoma / Q000097:blood; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014592:Uterine Hemorrhage / Q000453:epidemiology
D018394:CA-125 Antigen; C451759:MUC16 protein, human; D008565:Membrane Proteins