Usefulness of serum HE4 in endometriotic cysts

Martina Montagnana, Montagnana M, M Montagnana, Lippi G, Giuseppe Lippi, G Lippi, E Danese, Elisa Danese, Massimo Piergiuseppe Franchi, M Franchi, Gian Cesare Guidi, G C Guidi
British journal of cancer · 2009 · vol. 101(3) , pp. 548 · doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6605119 · PMID:19513069 · PMC2720222 · W2065722988
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of serum HE4 levels in distinguishing endometriotic cysts from other adnexal masses.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-07, 2026-07-09 · read from full text ⓘ

This correspondence reports a comparative study measuring serum HE4 and CA125 in 46 patients with ovarian cancer and 21 patients with endometriosis (12 ovarian endometrioma and 9 non-ovarian endometriosis), using an automated chemiluminescent immunoassay for CA125 and an ELISA for HE4. HE4 levels were significantly higher in ovarian cancer than in endometriosis (810.0 vs 49.4 pM), and HE4 performed better than CA125 for differentiating ovarian cancer from ovarian endometrioma based on ROC analysis (AUC 0.85 vs 0.77). A key limitation acknowledged by the authors’ presented data is that many ovarian endometrioma cases had CA125 above 35 U/ml, yet only one had HE4 above the reference-range upper limit (70 pM), implying performance depends on threshold behavior in this cohort. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it evaluates serum HE4 as a diagnostic discriminator between ovarian cancer and ovarian endometriotic cysts (endometrioma), motivated by CA125 elevations commonly seen in endometriosis.

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Abstract

Usefulness of serum HE4 in endometriotic cysts
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Reference

range (Moore et al , 2008). More importantly, receiver operator characteristic curve analysis showed that HE4 has a significantly higher area under the curve as compared with CA125 (0.85 vs 0.77, Po0.0001) for differentiating ovarian cancer from ovarian endometrioma. The results of our investigation confirm that HE4 is a promising marker for the early differentiation of ovarian cancer from ovarian endometriotic cysts, showing better diagnostic performances than CA125. Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

Huhtinen K, Suvitie P, Hiissa J, Junnila J, Huvila J, Kujari H, Seta¨la¨ M, Ha¨rkki P, Jalkanen J, Fraser J, Ma¨kinen J, Auranen A, Poutanen M, Perheentupa A (2009) Serum HE4 concentration differentiates malignant ovarian tumours from ovarian endometriotic cysts. Br J Cancer 100(8): 1315 – 1319 Muyldermans M, Cornillie FJ, Koninckx PR (1995) CA125 and endo- metriosis. Hum Reprod Update 1: 173 – 187 Moore RG, Brown AK, Miller MC, Skates S, Allard WJ, Verch T, Steinhoff M, Messerlian G, DiSilvestro P, Granai CO, Bast Jr RC (2008) The use of multiple novel tumor biomarkers for the detection of ovarian carcinoma in patients with a pelvic mass. Gynecol Oncol 108: 402 – 408 Published online 9 June 2009 *Correspondence: Dr M Montagnana; E-mail: [email protected] British Journal of Cancer (2009) 101, 548 & 2009 Cancer Research UK All rights reserved 0007 – 0920/09 $32.00 www.bjcancer.com

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Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Biomarkers, Tumor Endometriosis Epididymal Secretory Proteins Ovarian Cysts Ovarian Neoplasms beta-Defensins Biomarkers, Tumor CA-125 Antigen CA-125 Antigen Endometriosis Endometriosis Epididymal Secretory Proteins Female Humans Ovarian Cysts Ovarian Cysts Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms

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.

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