Preoperative serum CA-125 levels and risk of suboptimal cytoreduction in ovarian cancer: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: This meta-analysis was designed to determine the ability of pretreatment CA-125 level to predict optimal cytoreduction in advanced ovarian cancer (OC).

Methods: Through literature search, 14 studies were identified. In addition, we retrospectively reviewed the data of 154 patients with OC. Using the bi-variate model, diagnostic performance of CA-125 was assessed at the various cut-off levels. An overall odds ratio was obtained using random effects model.

Results: A total of 2,192 patients were included in the analysis. The pooled optimal cytoreduction rate and the mean of median CA-125 levels were 53.7% and 580 U/ml, respectively. At the cut-off of 500 U/ml, overall sensitivity and specificity were 68.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] 62.0-75.1%) and 63.2% (95% CI 53.7-71.7%), respectively. Positive and negative likelihood ratios were 1.87 (95% CI 1.40-2.50) and 0.49 (95% CI 0.37-0.66). The CA-125 >500 U/ml showed strong association with a risk of suboptimal cytoreduction with an odds ratio of 3.69 (95% CI 2.02-6.73).

Conclusions: The current analysis indicates that CA-125 is a strong risk factor of suboptimal cytoreduction and it may be applied in preoperative counseling and treatment planning. However, it also shows that CA-125 lacks the ability to predict optimal cytoreduction accurately.