High levels of pretreatment CA125 are associated to improved survival in high grade serous ovarian carcinoma (Mexico)

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Background

Serum levels of CA125 measured before any treatment have been evaluated in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) as a predictor of patient survival; however, results in survival index are controversial, as CA125 levels are influenced by several variables. Taking this into consideration, the present study evaluated the association of pretreatment levels of CA125 serum with the clinical stage, histology and differentiation grade of the tumor and the survival rate in a group of patients from an oncology referral center in Mexico, all of them diagnosed with ovarian carcinoma.

This retrospective study consisted of 1009 patients with EOC, diagnosed between 2006 and 2013 at the National Cancerology Institute (Instituto Nacional de Cancerología-INCan), considering only those with CA125 measurements before any chemotherapy or surgical cytoreduction......

 

Patients were referred from the whole country, mainly from the central region of Mexico. The educational level of the patients was elementary in three of four. The median age of the study population was 51, ranging from 18 to 90 years old; 60 % of the patients were aged 41–60 years. The mean body mass index of the patients was 26.8 Kg/m², with 60 % of them undergoing menopause.

The following proportions of histological subtypes were observed in epithelial ovarian cancer patients (n  = 1009): serous 55 %, endometrioid 19 %, mucinous 8 %, clear cells 8 %, and mixed carcinoma 10 %. The clinical stages of the patients were stage III (42 %), stage IV (36 %) whereas stages I and II represented the remaining 22 %.