[The clinical usefulness of serum CA72-4 analysis in patients with ovarian cancer]

Serum CA72-4 levels were measured by a radioimmunoassay using the murine monoclonal antibody B72.3 in gynecologic disease. The sensitivity and specificity was compared with those of CA125. If the upper limit of normal is set at 3.9U/ml of serum, all serum of normal healthy donors is negative, and in only 5 of 73 serum samples (6.8%) from patients with benign gynecologic disease is CA72-4 increased, whereas in 28 of 63 (44.4%) of ovarian cancer patients it is positive. The positivity of serum CA72-4 in ovarian cancer is as follows: 8.3% in stage I, 25.0% in stage II, 48.0% in stage III, and 85.7% in stage IV, respectively. Serum CA72-4 is increased in 39.1% of serous cystadenocarcinoma, 52.0% of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, 44.4% of endometrioid carcinoma, and 33.3% of clear cell carcinoma. Consequently, the one positive finding is that the CA72-4 test appears to be more useful in mucinous tumors than is the CA125. The use of CA72-4 and CA125 in combination is useful in increasing sensitivity because of the poor reaction of CA125 in mucinous tumors.