Is serum level of nestin useful in detecting epithelial ovarian cancer?

AIM: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of nestin as a discriminative marker between benign and malignant ovarian tumors.

METHODS: During the 1 year from January 2015 through December 2015, a nonconsecutive series of 80 patients (40 malignant, 40 benign) who underwent surgery for an adnexal mass were enrolled in the study. Intraoperative frozen section evaluation was performed if there was a suspicion in diagnosis. Statistical analyses were performed using spss ver. 16.0, while clinicopathological variables, including the categorical data, were analyzed using the χ(2) -test or Fisher's exact test. A P-value < 0.05 was defined as statistically significant.

RESULTS: Preoperative serum carbohydrate antigen (CA)-125, CA-15-3, and nestin levels were significantly higher in the malignant group compared to patients with benign ovarian tumors (P < 0.001, respectively). Serum nestin levels did not differ significantly on the basis of histologic subtypes. Serum nestin levels had specificity of 89.7%, which demonstrates nestin's sufficiency to distinguish benign from malignant epithelial ovarian tumors. The positive likelihood ratio of nestin was found to be superior to that of CA-125 and CA-15-3.

CONCLUSION: The results obtained from our study suggest that measurement of nestin level, alongside physical examination, transvaginal ultrasound, and serum CA-125 and CA-15-3 levels, can help differentiate benign ovarian tumors from malignant epithelial ovarian tumors. The findings of our study need to be supported with additional studies.