Diagnostic Value of Tumor Markers Compared to Ultrasound in the Diagnosis of Ovarian Tumors

Aims: Ovarian cancer has the worst prognosis among female genital tract malignancies, but if detected in the early stages, it is one of the most treatable malignancies. This study aimed to investigate the diagnostic value of tumor markers compared to ultrasound in the diagnosis of ovarian tumors. Instruments Methods: This cross-sectional-analytical study was conducted on 210 women referred to women’s specialized clinic in Yasuj City, Iran, from 2017 to 2021 who were candidates for ovarian surgery. The method of data collection was patients interviewing and using the information available in the file. The data was analyzed using SPSS 22 software. Findings: The most common histological pattern was ovarian epithelial masses (64.28%), of which 72.18% were larger than 10cm in ultrasound. There was a significant correlaion between the serum level of two tumor markers CA125 and HE4 in ovarian cancer (p=0.0001), but no correlaion was observed between the surgical stage and differentiation grade of ovarian cancer. The sensitivity of ultrasound was 78.9% and the sensitivity and specificity of HE4 tumor marker were 85.4% and 81.7%, respectively. The lowest specificity was related to the tumor marker CA125 (59.3%). Conclusion: Ultrasound has relatively high sensitivity for detecting ovarian tumors, but CA125, with relatively high sensitivity and moderate specificity and HE4, with high specificity and high sensitivity, as two tumor markers, are not suitable for screening these tumors alone and should be performed together with ultrasound.