[Clinical usefulness of the combination assay of CA 125, SLX, and CA 72-4 in patients with ovarian cancer].

A serological diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma was performed using a combination assay consisting of three tumor markers. Cancer Antigen 125 (CA125), Sialyl Lex-i (SLX), and CA72-4. The results were compared with those for the individual tumor markers. Furthermore, the diagnostic accuracy of the combination assay was compared with that of image diagnosis in patients with stage I ovarian carcinoma. 1. The combination assay was positive in 90.3% of the patients with ovarian carcinoma. Classified according to the clinical staging system, the positive rate increased progressively with each stage, 77.6% in stage I, 92.0% in stage II, 98.5% in stage III, and 100.0% in stage IV. According to histological types, the positive rates were 93.8% in serous cystadenocarcinoma, 87.0% in mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, 88.9% in endometrioid carcinoma, and 85.7% in clear cell carcinoma. On the other hand, 6.9% of healthy persons and 38.6% of patients with various benign diseases were found to be false positive in this diagnosis. The high false-positive rate in the latter group is thought to result from the high false-positive rate of 73.5% and 57.1% for adenomyosis and pelvic endometriosis, respectively. 2. The accuracy of the image diagnosis and combination assay was compared in 58 cases with stage I ovarian carcinoma. Both procedures were positive in 38 cases (65.5%). Two cases (3.4%) were positive in image diagnosis but negative in the combination assay. Seven cases (12.1%) were negative in image diagnosis but positive in the combination assay.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)