Clinical characteristics and serum CA19-9 combined with HE4 are valuable in diagnosing endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer

Ting Xu, Xu T, Lin Zhang, Jiang Y, Yi Jiang, Wan Y, Yicong Wan, Zhou S, Shulin Zhou, Sun G, Guodong Sun, Wenjun Cheng, Lin Yuan
International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics · 2023 · vol. 162(2) , pp. 472–478 · doi:10.1002/ijgo.14695 · PMID:36708088 · W4318393305
Other OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 6 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Older age, larger tumors, and elevated serum CA19-9 and HE4 levels are independent risk factors for endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer, with CA19-9 and HE4 combined showing high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity.

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

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer (EAOC) is difficult to diagnose because of its low incidence, uncertain risk factors, and the absence of effective markers. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of EAOC and identify useful serological markers. METHODS: We retrospectively studied the clinical characteristics of patients with EAOC and ovarian endometriosis, obtained between January 1, 2011 and October 31, 2021. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to explore the relationship between clinical characteristics and EAOC. Receiver operating characteristic curves were applied to access the diagnostic value of serological markers in EAOC. RESULTS: In total, the clinical characteristics of 220 patients were obtained; 44 with EAOC and 176 with ovarian endometriosis. EAOC patients were older (46.20 vs. 36.26 years, P < 0.001) and had larger tumors (9.10 vs. 6.73 cm, P = 0.003) together with higher CA19-9 (21.44 vs. 4.72 U/mL, P < 0.001) and HE4 levels (62.35 vs. 44.19 pmol/L, P < 0.001) when compared with ovarian endometriosis patients. Multivariate analysis showed that HE4 greater than 59.7 pmol/L, CA19-9 greater than 8.5 U/mL, age 42 years or older, and tumor length 9.2 cm or longer were independent risk factors for EAOC. Significantly, CA19-9 combined with HE4 had high sensitivity (72.73%) and specificity (78.41%) in diagnosing EAOC. CONCLUSION: Age over 42 years, large ovarian tumor, serum CA19-9 and HE4 are valuable in the diagnosis of EAOC.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

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. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (21)

Cited by (6)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-15T06:08:49.021275+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-15T06:08:25.384575+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-10-15T06:24:24.424788+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK