Performance Comparison of CA125 and the Combination of the Other Serum Biomarkers for the Early Detection of the Ovarian Cancer

In this study, we compared the diagnostic performance of the cancer antigen 125 (CA125), a biomarker that is frequently used in the clinic, both alone and in combination with other biomarkers, for the early detection of ovarian cancer. The serum samples were from Korean women, including 202 patients with benign pelvic masses and 52 ovarian cancer patients. The other markers used in combination with CA125 were M1, M2, M3, and M4, which have previously shown high diagnostic performance. We determined the biomarker levels by using Luminex assay. Logistic regression was used to assess the multivariate model performance by using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The AUC of CA125 in early ovarian cancer was 69.96% and that of the CA125 + M2 combination was 76.61%. From this study, we showed better diagnostic performance by using other markers in combination with CA125 than by using CA125 alone.