Assessment of CA-125 area under the curve as a prognostic factor in patients with ovarian cancer

The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of CA-125 area under the curve (CA-125 AUC) as a prognostic factor following surgical treatment for ovarian cancer patients. A retrospective analysis was conducted on ninety-five patients with ovarian cancer who had primary treatment in a tertiary center between 2000 and 2010. After either optimal or cytoreductive surgery, all patients underwent adjuvant chemotherapy. CA-125 AUC was calculated for each patient that had a minimum of three CA-125 serum measurements during the treatment period. The mean age at diagnosis and mean survival were 53.9 years (range, 16-75 years) and 35.6 +/- 22.9 months (range, 3.1-95.4 months), respectively. The mean (and median) CA-125 AUC of patients of FIGO stages I, II, III, and IV was 53.0 (42.5), 58.06 (58.06), 97.8 (54.6), and 405.2 (149.3) IU/ml day, respectively (p = 0.004). The mean CA-125 AUC was 57.7, 410.1, and 636.3 IU/ml day for patients with a complete response, partial response, and no response/progressive disease to first-line chemotherapy, respectively (p < 0.001). The CA-125 AUC cut-off level for an overall survival of >= 5 years was 99.75 IU/ml day with a sensitivity of 90.9 % (95 % CI, 70.8-98.6) with 1.27 as positive likelihood ratio. Patients who suffer from ovarian cancer, with a lower CA125 AUC, have a better overall survival than those with a higher CA125 AUC. CA-125 AUC could be used as an independent factor for evaluating the treatment efficacy and chemotherapy response.