The Correlation of Serum Level of Tumor Marker CA125 and CA19-9 and Severity of Endometriosis

Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical usefulness of serum level of CA125 and CA19-9 to assess the severity of endometriosis. Methods: The study was conducted on 80 patients with histologically diagnosed endometriosis and 20 patients in control group. Preoperative serum CA125 and CA19-9 levels were measured by immunoradiometric assay and the severity of disease was staged according to the revised American Fertility Society (1985) classification system. Results: Both serum level of CA125 and CA19-9 in endometriosis patient (81.7120.44 U/mL, 47.180.74 U/mL, MeanSD) were higher than control group (10.86.48 U/mL, 11.78.82 U/mL, MeanSD)(p=0.001, p=0.054). The serum CA125 level increased significantly according to stages (p=0.051), but serum CA19-9 level showed an increasing trend (p>0.05). With the cutoff value of CA125 with 35 U/mL and CA19-9 with 37 U/mL, overall positive rate for CA125, CA19-9, and CA125 combined with CA19-9 was 45.1%, 33.8%, and 52.5%. There was no difference between the positive rate with CA125 combined with CA19-9 (52.5%) and that with CA125 alone (45.1%)(p>0.05). With the cutoff value of CA125 with 15 U/mL and CA19-9 with 9 U/mL, overall positive rate for CA125, CA19-9, and CA125 combined with CA19-9 was 82.5%, 76.3%, and 92.5%, the positive rate with CA125 combined with CA19-9 (92.5%) was higher than that with CA125 alone (82.5%)(p=0.056). Conclusion: Because the positive rate with combined serum CA125 and CA19-9 level is not higher than that with serum CA125 alone for the severity assessment of endometriosis, it is recommended to use serum CA125 level alone.