title: Clinical significance of plasma lysophosphatidic acid levels in the differential diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the value of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We first performed a hospital-based, case-control study involving 123 ovarian cancer patients and 101 benign ovarian tumor patients, and then conducted a meta-analysis with 19 case-control studies to assess the correlation between ovarian cancer and plasma LPA levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The case-control study results demonstrated that ovarian cancer patients have increased LPA and cancer antigen (CA)-125 levels compared to patients with benign ovarian tumor (LPA: Ovarian cancer vs benign ovarian tumor: 5.28 ± 1.52 vs 1.82 ± 0.77 μmol/L; CA-125: Ovarian cancer vs benign ovarian tumor: 87.17 ± 45.81 vs. 14.03 ± 10.14 U/mL), which showed statistically significant differences (both P < 0.05). LPA with advanced sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy rate of diagnosis excelled CA-125 in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer (both P < 0.05). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer (LPA: 0.983; CA-125: 0.910) were statistically significant compared with the reference (both P < 0.001) and the difference of the areas of ROC curve between LPA and CA-125 in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer showed statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). The meta-analysis results suggested that plasma LPA levels were higher in ovarian cancer tissues than in benign tissues (standardized mean difference (SMD) =2.36, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.61-3.11, P < 0.001) and normal tissues (SMD = 2.32, 95% CI: 1.77-2.87, P < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LPA shows greater value in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer compared to CA-125 and may be employed as a biological index to diagnose ovarian cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology Division, The First Hospital of Qinhuangdao City, Qinhuangdao, China.
authors.forename: Yun-Jie
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Li-Yan
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Zhan-Zhao
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Yan-Jie
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Guang-Xia
authors.initials: GX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood; D018394:CA-125 Antigen / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008246:Lysophospholipids / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D012372:ROC Curve
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018394:CA-125 Antigen; D008246:Lysophospholipids; C032881:lysophosphatidic acid