Abstract            Volume:4  Issue-10  Year-2016         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

Ovarian cancer is the most common malignancy in the world and the fifth leading cause of death from cancer among women. HE-4 or (Human Epididymis protein 4) is a new marker introduced for diagnosis and follow-up of ovarian cancer. The aim of this study is to examine the association between preoperative serum levels of the marker of HE4 and epithelial ovarian cancer based on FIGO system to evaluate this marker in predicting the ovarian cancer stage. This analytical retrospective study is conducted on 62 patients with ovarian masses hospitalized in Ahwaz Imam Khomeini Hospital for surgery. The records of the patients who had been hospitalized within the years of 2011-2013 was analyzed and the HE4 serum level was measured by ELISA method and also the information in the patient records were recorded in demographic questionnaires. The data were analyzed with SPSS software version 18. In this study 62 patients with ovarian masses were studied among whom 26 cases (41.9%) were postmenopausal. Statistical test results showed that the HE-4 levels in postmenopausal women had no significant difference with other patients (P> 0.05), but the mean HE-4 level in different stages showed that by increasing the stage the HE-4 level is increased significantly (P = 0.007). This increase was also applied in patients’ grade and HE-4 was significantly higher in severe cases the (P = 0.003). Also HE-4 level was significantly higher in malignant patients than the benign patients (P = 0.001). Based on the results obtained in this study it can be concluded that HE4 is a good diagnostic marker for differentiating benign and malignant ovarian tumors and more importantly in malignant patients its level is increased as the grade and stage of the disease increase and thus it is recommended to apply it in patients with a diagnosis of ovarian tumors.

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