Objective: Recent studies indicate that circulating calprotectin may serve as a biomarker in some cancers. We investigated whether this is the case for ovarian neoplasms.
Study design: Calprotectin was analyzed with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in EDTA-plasma collected prior to surgery from women with ovarian carcinomas (n = 89), borderline ovarian tumors (BOT, n = 39), and benign ovarian tumors (n = 71). Serum CA 125 was analyzed in the same study population.
Results: Median plasma calprotectin concentration was elevated in ovarian carcinoma, compared with controls, as well as compared with BOT (both P < .001). A positive correlation was found between CA 125 and calprotectin concentrations in ovarian carcinoma. Receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated a larger area under the curve for CA 125 (0.85) as compared with calprotectin (0.70).
Conclusion: Plasma calprotectin is elevated in invasive ovarian cancer, but when used as a tumor marker, it is inferior to CA 125.