ZHONGHUA YANGSHENG BAOJIAN ›› 2025, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (11): 180-184.

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Value of Combined Detection of Serum Tumor Markers CA125, HE4 and CEA in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Ovarian Cancer

HU Yong-chao, ZHANG Rong-hua, KANG Cong-li*   

  1. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Rizhao People's Hospital, Rizhao Shandong, 276800, China
  • Online:2025-06-01 Published:2025-09-23

Abstract: Objective To investigate the value of combined detection of serum tumor marker carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of ovarian cancer (OC). Methods A total of 103 OC patients diagnosed and treated for the first time in Rizhao People's Hospital from January 2018 to June 2019 were selected as the study subjects (OC group), among which 63 OC patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery, 45 patients in the effective chemotherapy group and 18 patients in the ineffective chemotherapy group. At the same time, 52 patients with benign ovarian lesions who came to the hospital during the same period were selected as the benign control group, all of whom had serum CA125, HE4 and CEA examination data. Results The serum levels of CA125, HE4 and CEA in OC group were higher than those in control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The levels of serum CA125, HE4 and CEA in OC group with clinical high stage (Ⅲ~Ⅳ) were higher than those in clinical low stage (Ⅰ~Ⅱ), and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in serum CA125, HE4 and CEA levels between the effective group and the ineffective group before neoadjuvant chemotherapy (P>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in serum marker levels between the ineffective group after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and before chemotherapy (P>0.05). Serum marker levels in the effective group after chemotherapy were lower than those before chemotherapy. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of the combined detection of serum CA125, HE4 and CEA was 0.910 and the sensitivity was 91.26%, which was higher than that of each single detection, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The 5-year incident-free rate of serum CA125, HE4 and CEA in high expression group was lower than that in low expression group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion The combined detection of serum CA125, HE4 and CEA can improve the diagnostic value of OC, and can guide the clinical formulation of treatment and prognosis evaluation according to the expression level.

Key words: ovarian cancer, carbohydrate antigen 125, human epididymal protein 4, carcinoembryonic antigen, combined detection

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