Diagnosis: Tumor markers for monitoring therapy of cancer patients
• CA125 is approved by the FDA for monitoring ovarian cancer.
• Approximately 80% of ovarian cancers are of the serous epithelial type. The remaining 20% are a mixture of the mucinous, clear cell, endometriod, and undifferentiated subtypes.
• HE4 is a newly characterized biomarker that is useful in monitoring for recurrence and disease progression of serous epithelial ovarian cancer. When using this marker, a change is considered significant if this value increases or decreases by 25% or greater.
• Mesothelin (i.e., soluble mesothelin-related peptides) is also used as a tumor marker for serous types of epithelial ovarian cancer.
• ROMA (risk of ovarian malignancy algorithm) is a recently approved test to determine whether a biopsy sample is likely to show a malignancy. It is an index combining circulating HE4 and CA-125 levels, in conjunction with menopause status.
