Serum HE4 concentration is not dependent on menstrual cycle or hormonal treatment among endometriosis patients and healthy premenopausal women

Marianne Hallamaa, M Hallamaa, Hallamaa M, Suvitie P, P Suvitie, Pia Suvitie, Kaisa Huhtinen, K Huhtinen, Matomäki J, Jaakko Matomäki, J Matomäki, M Poutanen, Matti Poutanen, Perheentupa A, Antti Perheentupa, A Perheentupa
Gynecologic oncology · 2012 · vol. 125(3) , pp. 667–672 · doi:10.1016/j.ygyno.2012.03.011 · PMID:22426487 · W2023428885
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 8 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Serum HE4 concentration was found to be unaffected by the menstrual cycle or hormonal treatments in both endometriosis patients and healthy premenopausal women.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

ObjectiveHuman epididymal secretory protein E4 (HE4) is a new promising tumor marker developed for the diagnostics and follow up of ovarian cancer. It has yet to become widely accepted in clinical practice, and its biological properties have not been inclusively studied. The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum HE4 concentration varies within the normal menstrual cycle and whether common gynecological hormonal treatments have an effect on HE4 values.MethodsOur study population consisted of 180 women, including 126 endometriosis patients and 54 healthy women. We measured their serum HE4 and CA125 concentrations and evaluated the effect of the menstrual cycle and the possible hormonal medication on these marker concentrations.ResultsWe found no significant variation in serum HE4 concentrations in samples taken at different phases of the menstrual cycle. The median HE4 concentrations in proliferative, secretory and menstrual phase were 41.5, 45.1 and 35.3 pM in healthy women, and 43.4, 44.3 and 43.0 pM in endometriosis patients, respectively. The use of combined estrogen and progestin contraceptives did not affect serum HE4 levels significantly.ConclusionsThe present study shows that the HE4 measurement in healthy premenopausal women as well as in women with endometriosis can be carried out at any phase of the menstrual cycle, and irrespective of hormonal medication, extending the benefits of HE4 use in clinical practice.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Biomarkers, Tumor Endometriosis Endometriosis Hormones Menstrual Cycle Premenopause Proteins Adult Aromatase Inhibitors Aromatase Inhibitors Biomarkers, Tumor CA-125 Antigen CA-125 Antigen Case-Control Studies Contraceptives, Oral, Combined Contraceptives, Oral, Combined Endometriosis Female Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (45)

Cited by (8)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-07-26T06:08:39.051465+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:16:17.081435+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-07-26T06:48:27.953686+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK