STUDY OF OSTEOPONTIN AS THE “CA125” ADJUNCT FOR DETECTION OF OVARIAN CARCINOMA IN PATIENTS WITH PELVIC MASS

Introduction: Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer, whose high mortality rate is partly due to late diagnosis. Tumor-specific markers that can be detected in early stages of the disease could probably improve treatment results. In this study, we evaluated the diagnostic value of serum levels of osteopontin in patients with epithelial ovarian tumors. Patients and methods: Twenty five patients with ovarian cancer and 25 patients with pelvic masses and 25 healthy women were enrolled in this study. Blood samples were taken from the patients from the first two groups before surgery and the healthy controls donated blood at the same time. Osteopontin serum level was measured by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay method using human osteopontin enzyme immunoassay kits. Finally osteopontin levels before surgery were compared between groups. Results: The mean age in patients with ovarian cancer, benign tumor and normal group were 35.1, 32.4 and 31.6 years respectively. The most prevalent clinical symptom in almost half of patients with either benign or malignant pathology was abdominal pain. The average level of CA125 and osteopontin in ovarian cancer patients was 1818.4 and 9.6, respectively. The average level of CA125 and osteopontin in epithelial ovarian tumors was significantly higher than other groups. Significant linear relationship was detected between CA125 and osteopontin. Conclusion: Our study results support the fact that commitment measurement of osteopontin and CA125- due to their significant increase among the ovarian cancer patients- could be helpful in early detection of ovarian cancer.