Expression of Multiple Tumour Markers in Serum from Patients with Ovarian Carcinoma and Healthy Women

Abstract

Serum samples from 70 patients with bulky ovarian carcinomas, 46 patients with surgically extirpated Stage I ovarian carcinomas, and 108 aged-matched healthy control subjects were assayed for 10 tumour-associated antigens. Levels of expression of each antigen were progressively increased in treated Stage I and bulky disease patients over healthy controls. Levels of expression in treated Stage I patients inversely reflected the interval between surgery and collection of the sample. For patients with bulky disease, determination of correlation coefficients of expression of each antigen against each other antigen showed that in 9 of 45 such relationships, the coefficients were greater than 0.30, suggesting significant coexpression. The best correlation was found for CA125 and MSA, HMFG2 and MSA, DCA and MSA, and DCA and HMFG2. By multivariate discriminant function analysis, the combination of 2 assays (CA125 and NB/70K) was found to increase specificity of detection of ovarian carcinoma over one assay alone (CA125). Use of more than these 2 assays increased sensitivity only marginally. The attained specificity is insufficient for use as a screening assay for ovarian cancer alone, given the low prevalence in the community of this disease.

Glycoproteomic Analysis of Malignant Ovarian Cancer Ascites Fluid Identifies Unusual Glycopeptides

“…Western blot (WB) analyses of CA125, fibronectin, and MUC1 were included in this study. CA125 is still the most reliable biomarker for OC, while fibronectin and MUC1 have been previously reported as potential biomarkers of OC. − Fibronectin is a medium abundant plasma/serum protein, more easily detected by proteomic methods, whereas CA125 and MUC1 are present in much lower amounts. Analysis of these glycoproteins helps us to determine the overall enrichment of these glycoproteins by ConA or WGA lectin binding.…”