The value of the combined detection of human epididymis protein 4 and cancer antigen 125 in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma

Objective To study the changes of serum levels of human epididymis protein 4(HE4) and their clinicopathologic feature and explore the clinical value of the combined detection of human epididymis protein 4(HE4) and cancer antigen 125(CA125) in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma. Methods 77 patients from October 2009 to February 2011 in Gynaecology Department of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital were selected as study objects,and they 56 with ovarian or adnexal benign diseases were selected as benign lesions group,21 with ovarian carcinoma were selected as ovarian carcinoma group according to the postoperative pathological results. The levels of HE4 and CA125 were detected,the changes of serum levels of HE4 in different groups and the sensitivity of combined detection with CA125 were analyzed. Results The serum levels of HE4 in ovarian carcinoma group were significantly higher than that of the gynecological benign lesions group(P 0.05); with the FIGO clinical stage increased,the levels of HE4 increased,the serum levels of HE4 in phase Ⅰ and Ⅱ were statistically different with that in phase Ⅲ and Ⅳ(P 0.05). The serum HE4 levels in patients with lymph node metastasis or not had no statistically significant difference(P 0.05). Using the women of gynecological benign diseases as the reference,when the cutoff point of serum HE4 was set at 76.5 pmol/L and the area under the ROC curve in HE4 single detection were 0.878. The sensitivity was 80.95%,while the specificity is 85.71%; the sensitivity of combined detection with CA125 was higher than that of single test,which was as high as 90.05%. Conclusion HE4 is a useful biomarker for ovarian carcinoma. Combined detection of CA125 and HE4 can increase the detection rate and improve the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma.