ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE

The study was designed to investigate the role of preoperative serum tumor marker CA 125 levels for the necessity of lymphadenectomy in endometrium carcinoma cases.

METHODS

The study included 33 female patients who were diagnosed as endometrium carcinoma from July 1999 to September 2003. Serum levels of tumor marker CA 125 were measured preoperatively and the patients underwent surgical procedures of total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salphingooopherectomy and systemic pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy after cytological fluid specimens were obtained. The relationships between the serum tumor marker CA 125 levels and the tumor grade, stage, type and the lymph node positivity were examined. To determine the values of cut-off point levels for serum tumor marker CA 125 the levels of 20 IU/ml and 35 IU/ml were compared. All the data were analyzed by using the SPSS statistics software through Fisher's exact test and Kruskall Wallis test.

CONCLUSION

Our study emphasizes that there should be larger number of endometrium carcinoma cases to predict the value of preoperative serum CA 125 levels as a criteria for the necessity of lymphadenectomy.

RESULTS

There was no significant relationship between the lymph node positivity and either serum CA 125 levels of 20 IU/ml and 35 IU/ml statistically. However, when we set the cut-off point level for 35 IU/ml and evaluated the cases which were at stage 1 and over, we found a statistical significant relationship (p=0.030).