Epithelioid sarcomas with elevated serum CA125: report of two cases.

Epithelioid sarcoma (ES) is a musculoskeletal malignant tumor with epithelioid appearance. It is a relatively rare soft tissue neoplasm, the histological diagnosis of which is difficult and the histogenesis is still obscure. Like many other musculoskeletal tumors, according to the literature, ES has no useful tumor marker to be monitored in the serum. We experienced two ES patients with elevated serum CA125 level. One patient was a 29-year-old woman with ES in her pubic area and the other a 26-year-old man with a tumor in his right calf. Laboratory examination revealed that the CA125 values of both patients were high and changed in accordance with the progress of the tumor growth. An immunohistochemical study demonstrated that the tumor cells in both cases expressed CA125. These results suggest that CA125 can be used as a useful tumor marker for diagnosing and monitoring tumor progress.