[The clinical significance of thrombin-antithrombin III complex (TAT) and fibrinogen and fibrin degradation products (FDP) levels in ovarian cancer]

We measured the levels of thrombin-antithrombin III complex (TAT) and fibrinogen and fibrin degradation products (FDP) in 115 patients with gynecological malignancies (ovarian cancer 34, cervical cancer 34, endometrial cancer 47). These concentrations were compared to those in control groups of 15 patients with benign ovarian tumor. The levels of TAT and FDP were significantly higher in patients with ovarian cancer compared to the control group (both: p less than 0.01), and these levels were higher than in other gynecological malignancies. In stages I and II the positive rate of TAT and FDP (TAT greater than 3.0 ng/ml, FDP greater than 1.40 microgram/ml) in patients with ovarian cancer was higher than that in other gynecological malignancies. TAT and FDP were increased following cancer dissemination, and the recovery of coagulative and fibrinolytic factors (TAT, FDP) with effective treatment was correlated to the prognosis for patients with ovarian cancer. These levels had no correlation with the levels of CA125 and histological classification in patients with ovarian cancer. Accordingly, these results suggest that these changes in TAT and FDP may be useful, together with other clinical signs, in detecting early stage ovarian cancer.