The role of lipocalin-2 serum levels in the diagnostics of endometrial cancer.

BACKGROUND

Endometrial cancer is one of the most common tumor of the woman genital organs.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this study was to determine the lipocalin-2 levels in patients with endometrial cancer compared to those with normal endometrium or mild endometrial pathologies.

METHODS

Study included 123 patients with BMI > 21 kg/m2 who were admitted due to abnormal bleeding, in which 52 patients with endometrial cancer. The NGAL, CA125, HE4 serum levels were determined for all patients.

RESULTS

Significantly lower median NGAL serum levels were found in a group of patients with normal endometrium compared to the endometrial cancer group, p= 0.006. NGAL protein area under ROC curves value as a diagnostic test, differentiating between endometrial cancer and other benign changes endometrium is AUC - 0.81 (p< 0.00001). The NGAL protein had a high sensitivity in all patients included in the analysis: 84% vs. 82% in pre-menopausal patients, and 81% in postmenopausal women with a specificity of 78%, 80% and 87%, respectively. The independent variable for FIGO and model logistic regression proves that NGAL is statistically significant (p= 0.000602), the odds ratio is 3.66. The model for grading shows, that NGAL increase by one ng/ml increases risk chances by 2.32 times in diagnosis with less cancer differentiation.

CONCLUSIONS

Our preliminary studies demonstrate that lipocalin-2 may be of value in the diagnostics of uterine body cancers.