The objective of the present study was to analyze the prognostic relevance of pretreatment serum CA125 ≥500 U/ml and its role as a non-invasive factor for estimating optimal cytoreduction (≤1 cm) in primary serous ovarian cancer. Clinicopathological parameters and CA125 levels prior to primary cytoreductive surgery were retrospectively evaluated in all 261 consecutive patients with primary epithelial ovarian cancer from a single centre. Inclusion criteria were existing preoperative CA125 level, serous ovarian cancer and performed full primary treatment (surgery/platinum-based chemotherapy). A total of 136 patients met the criteria. Among them, 74 patients had CA125 ≥500 U/ml. The other 62 patients that met the aforementioned criteria and had CA125 <500 U/ml were defined as controls. The present study tested cut-off CA125 values to detect subgroups affecting prognosis. The goal was to evaluate patients with optimal cytoreduction (R≤1 cm). Univariate analyses were performed with PASW to identify clinicopathological parameters associated with the pretreatment CA125 level. For survival analyses, a cut-off-value of CA125 ≥500 U/ml was used to identify the association between preoperative CA125 levels, resection status and prognosis. To test significant differences between examined groups, Student's t-test and the Mann-Whitney test were used. P<0.05 was considered to indicate a statistically significant difference. Significantly worse prognosis in terms of overall survival (P=0.023) and progression-free survival (P=0.011) was detected in the CA125 ≥500 U/ml group of optimally cytoreduced patients compared with in the CA125 <500 U/ml group. The complete cytoreduction rate was higher in CA125 <500 U/ml (33.9%) vs. CA125 ≥500 U/ml (21.6%). A CA125 level >1,404 U/ml had a higher rate of suboptimal cytoreduction (32.4%) compared with lower CA125 levels. A pretreatment CA125 level ≥500 U/ml had significantly worse prognostic impact after optimal cytoreduction compared with CA125 <500 U/ml. The higher the CA125 level the higher the suboptimal cytoreduction rate. Patients with CA125 ≥500 U/ml may be candidates for an initial laparoscopic approach to specify resectability and to determine how to proceed. Overall, CA125 levels appear to be helpful in predicting suboptimal cytoreductive surgery for patients with primary ovarian cancer, but should be interpreted together with clinical and radiologic findings. This may improve defining the optimal treatment strategy in these patients.
Keywords: CA125; cut-off; histology; optimal cytoreduction; ovarian cancer; prognosis; residual tumour mass.
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