Serum CA19-9, CA-125 and CEA as tumor markers for mucinous ovarian tumors.

Aim: To analyze the use of serum cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) and carcinoembryogenic antigen (CEA) in predicting the malignant potential of mucinous ovarian tumor, and to assess the clinical factors associated with these tumors.

Methods: This retrospective study collected the data from 314 patients who were diagnosed with mucinous ovarian tumor. These patients had preoperative serum CA19-9, CA-125, CEA available and underwent surgery at Ramathibodi Hospital between January 2010 and December 2016. The diagnostic performance of CA19-9, CA-125 and CEA was analyzed using the receiver operator characteristic curve. The associations between clinicopathological factors and serum CA19-9, CA-125 and CEA level were also analyzed.

Results: A total of 314 patients were recruited in this study. They consisted of 221 patients with benign mucinous ovarian tumor (70.38%), 65 patients with borderline mucinous ovarian tumor (20.70%) and 28 patients with mucinous ovarian carcinoma (8.92%). Multivariate analysis revealed that the tumor size, elevated serum CA19-9, CA-125 and CEA influenced the tumor pathology. The mucinous ovarian tumor with large tumor size, elevated serum CA19-9, CA-125 and CEA more than the cut off values showed a positive correlation with the risk ratio of 1.60 (95% CI = 1.13-2.28; P = 0.005), 1.74 (95% CI = 1.22-2.47; P = 0.002), 1.90 (95% CI = 1.34-2.70; P < 0.001), 1.58 (95% CI = 1.10-2.29; P = 0.020), respectively. CA-125 provided the highest diagnostic performance, with an area under receiver operator characteristic curve of 0.745, to differentiate between borderline, malignant or benign mucinous ovarian tumor.

Conclusion: Preoperative elevation of the serum CA19-9, CA-125, CEA and tumor size are useful predictors to differentiate between benign, borderline and malignant mucinous ovarian tumor. The best predictor is CA-125, followed by CA19-9 and CEA.