[The values of urine cysteine protein activity in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer].

The levels of urine cysteine protease (UCP) were detected in the urines of 70 gynecological cancers, 50 gynecological benign tumors and 50 normal women. The values of UCP assay of gynecological cancers were much higher than those of benign and normal samples (P < 0.01). Best cut off point for diagnosis of gynecological cancers was P95 and UCP cut off value was 0.24 pmol.min-1/L by using percentile and ROC curve. The sensitivity of UCP assay was 90%, specificity 80% and accuracy 86%. The sensitivity for ovarian cancers was 95%, but 77% and 85% for corpus and cervical cancers respectively. There were no differences between UCP and CA125 (sensitivity 85%, specificity 87%, accuracy 84%) in the diagnosis of ovarian cancers. In 7 cases of 8 cases of stage I ovarian cancers, UCP were abnormal. In 6 cases of the same group, CA125 were normal (< 35,000 U/L). So UCP may be better than CA125 in the diagnosis of early ovarian cancer. The sensitivity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) isoenzyme was 75% in ovarian cancer which was lower than UCP and CA125, but the specificity 85%. LDH isoenzyme still was one of important tumor markers for diagnosis. Combined assays with UCP, CA125 and LDH isoenzyme may reach the sensitivity 96% and specificity 100% evidently. These data implied that UCP may be a good tumor marker in gynecological cancers especially for ovarian cancers in future.