Urinary Neopterin in Patients with Ovarian Cancer

Urinary neopterin, an indicator of systemic immune activation, is increased in most patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) and is an independent prognostic indicator. The data on prognostic significance of neopterin in EOC have been collected before the advent of paclitaxel that has changed the management and natural history of the disease. In the present study, we have evaluated the prognostic significance of urinary neopterin in 49 patients with primary and secondary ovarian neoplasms treated in the late 1990s and in 2000s. Urinary neopterin was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Compared to controls, urinary neopterin was significantly increased in patients with both primary ovarian cancer and ovarian metastases of other tumors (341 ± 343, and 328 ± 277 vs. 133 ± 40 μmol/mol creatinine; p