51. The biological tumor markers' myopia: a model with CA 125 and second-look in ovarian cancer.
- Author
-
Zanaboni F, Accinelli G, Colombo P, Jelmoni G, Morandi C, Pedronetto S, Sbernini R, and Bolis G
- Subjects
- Adult, Aged, Antigens, Tumor-Associated, Carbohydrate, Carcinoma pathology, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Ovarian Neoplasms pathology, Prognosis, Antigens, Neoplasm blood, Carcinoma blood, Ovarian Neoplasms blood
- Abstract
Preoperative CA 125 levels were measured in 36 patients with advanced epithelial ovarian carcinoma in clinical response undergoing a second-look operation. All the patients had positive levels (greater than 35 U/ml) of this tumor marker at diagnosis. The correlation between antigen levels and disease status at surgery revealed a sensitivity of this assay of 0.55 (only 11/20 patients still with tumor had positive levels) and a specificity of 0.94 (15/16 patients with no tumor had less than 35 U/ml). The predictive value of a positive test was 0.92. This method unfortunately proved unable to recognize microscopic residual tumor burden, less than 0.5 cm.
- Published
- 1987
- Full Text
- View/download PDF