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Abstract
Highlights
- •
- Anti-HE4 antibodies more common in infertility
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- Correlate with antibodies to mesothelin
Objectives
To
develop an assay for anti-HE4 antibodies and assess such antibodies in
sera from women with increased epidemiologic risk for ovarian cancer
(infertility) and patients with ovarian cancer in comparison to
controls.
Methods
An ELISA was
developed to measure antibodies to recombinant full length HE4 and
cut-off values were determined for different levels of specificity (up
to 99%).
Results
Infertile women
more frequently had anti-HE4 antibodies than controls (23% at 98%
specificity, p<0.001) with antibodies most frequent in women with POF
(31%) and ovulatory dysfunction (47%). There was also an increased
frequency of anti-HE4 antibodies in patients with ovarian cancer (14% at
97% specificity, p<0.01), but more women with certain types of
infertility have anti-HE4 antibodies than women with ovarian cancer.
Most patients with ovarian cancer have circulating HE4 antigen, which
may interfere with detection of antibodies, while the level of HE4
antigen in sera from infertile women was not higher than in normal
controls. There was a statistically significant correlation between
antibodies to HE4 and antibodies to mesothelin in the same patients.
Conclusions
Women
with certain types of infertility, which have increased risk to develop
ovarian cancer, and women with ovarian cancer more frequently than
controls have antibodies to HE4, a biomarker for ovarian cancer. The
antibodies may reflect a tumor-promoting Th2 type of inflammation.
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