Serum tumor markers have a major role in the screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of most of the gynecologic cancers. Ovarian cancer is one of the deadliest of the group because it is so frequently asymptomatic until it has advanced to an untreatable stage. Even serum cancer antigen-125 (CA-125), clinically one of the most reliable serum markers for ovarian cancer, is elevated in only half of early-stage still-treatable tumors. Because of the very low prevalence of ovarian cancer in the general population, at present, there is no cost-effective imaging or simple microscopic screening test for ovarian cancer as there is for breast and cervical cancers. However, recent proteomics and nucleic acid-based analyses have shown great promise for the discovery of new and more useful serum biomarkers, which cumulatively might provide such a screening tool. In this review, we will discuss both the currently used serum tumor markers for screening, diagnosis, monitoring of ovarian cancer, and the novel biomarkers that are now under investigation and validation.
©2012 AACR.