REVIEW   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana - Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2023 April;182(4):222-30

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.22.04896-3

Copyright © 2022 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The role of five plasma proteins in the diagnosis of ovarian tumors

Valeria Z. RACHEVA ¹, Adelaidа L. RUSEVA ¹, Angel D. YORDANOV ² ✉

¹ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Clinical Immunology and Allergology, Medical University of Pleven, Pleven, Bulgaria; ² Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Medical University of Pleven, Pleven, Bulgaria

Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the leading causes of deaths of women in the world. In Bulgaria, about 800 women are diagnosed with OC every year. With early detection, OC is treatable and has a high survival rate. Unfortunately, there are no effective strategies for disease prevention. This necessitates the search for effective screening methods to improve early diagnosis by identifying biomarkers with maximum specificity and sensitivity. Many serum tumor markers are known, but most are not tumor specific. This brief overview aimed to briefly describe biomarkers and summarize data from various studies that suggest that appropriately combined plasma concentrations can be used to increase the efficiency of OC detection: carcinoma antigen (CA 125; a protein produced by ovarian tumor cells), transthyretin (TTR; a transport protein for retinol-binding protein and thyroxine), Apo-A1 lipoprotein (the main protein component of HDL lipoproteins) and transferrin (plays a central role in the metabolism of iron and β2-microglobulin, belongs to the HLA system, is related to immune responses in some tissue-dependent processes). The study of these proteins will reveal the potential of the five biomarkers in a panel for the prediction and timely diagnosis of ovarian malignancy.

KEY WORDS: Ovarian neoplasms; Transferrin; Lipoproteins