OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the predictive power of sexual hormones and tumor markers in endometrial cancer.METHODS: A total of 135 healthy women were prospectively compared with 135 women who had histopathologically confirmed endometrial cancer. Both the groups of women were matched by age and body mass index.RESULTS: When compared with healthy controls, women with endometrial cancer had significantly higher serum levels of CA-125, CA 19-9, prolactin and thyroid-stimulating hormone, whereas significantly lower serum concentrations of alpha-fetoprotein, CA 15-3, follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone (LH). Tumor stage correlated positively and significantly with serum levels of prolactin, CA-125 and CA 19-9 as did tumor grade with serum concentrations of LH, estradiol, prolactin and CA-125. Serum CA-125 levels >35 U/ml were found to have a sensitivity of 42.2%, specificity of 87.4%, positive-predictive value of 77.0% and negative-predictive value of 60.2%. Besides endometrial cancer could be diagnosed with 16.3% sensitivity, 100.0% specificity, 100.0% positive- and 54.4% negative-predictive values with serum prolactin levels >30 ng/ml.CONCLUSIONS: Because serum concentrations of CA-125 can be elevated in various malignancies, it is obvious that it is neither specific nor accurately diagnostic for endometrial tumors. What is more, the distinct effects of physiological factors on prolactin secretion shadow the credibility of this hormone in early diagnosis of endometrial tumors. Thus, either prolactin or CA-125 is far from being utilized as the sole entity for screening endometrial cancer. Therefore, both parameters should be regarded as the components of a biochemical screening panel that is to be developed in future.
Biomarkers, Tumor Carcinoma, Endometrioid