CA-125 levels in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and association with clinical parameters

Abstract

CA-125 is an important tumor marker known to increase in some abdominal benign and other intraabdominal malign conditions other than ovarian carcinoma. We aimed to determine whether CA-125 increases in the patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma especially had abdominal involvement and the association between important markers in lymphoma such as ?2-microglobulin and LDH, performance status, B symptoms stage and mortality. We studied patients who were admitted to our hospital between January 1996-April 1998, newly diagnosed, no prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy underwent. There were 23 males and 31 females (total 54 patients), median age was 61 (range: 18-77), median follow up duration of 13.5 months (range: 2-28). Physical examination and whole radiologic procedures for staging were done. There were 10 (4 women, 6 men) in stage I, 16 (8 women, 8 men) in stage II, 17 (13 women, 4 men) in stage III and 11 (6 women, 5 men) in stage IV. ?2-microglobulin, LDH and CA-125 levels were determined for each patient. CA-125 levels were (n = 28) 109.4 ± 27.9 U/ml and (n = 26) 22.9 ± 5.9 U/ml (p < 0.01), in patients with and without abdominal involvement respectively. CA-125 levels were (n = 35) 93.9 ± 23.1 U/ml in patients with B symptoms (n = 19), 19.5 ± 5.6 U/ml (p < 0.01) without B symptoms. CA-125 levels were (n = 28) 40.4 ± 15.4 U/ml in patients with good performance status (ECOG: 0-1) (n = 26), 97.2 ± 27.5 U/ml (p < 0.01) without good performance status (ECOG: 2-4). CA-125 levels were (n = 29) 109.4 ± 27.0 in patients with advanced stages (stage III-IV) (n = 25), 19.3 ± 4.7 U/ml (p < 0.01) without advanced stages (stage I-II). During 13.5 months median follow-up time (r = 2-28), 12 patients died. While CA-125 was 174.0 ± 51.3 in the patients with short term survival (median 3 months); 37.3 ± 10.5 in patients still alive. CA-125 can be used as a marker of abdominal involvement for the patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Increased CA-125 levels also show parallelism with ?2-microglobulin and LDH in the patients with B symtoms, with poor performance and advanced stages. Studies including more patients and long-term follow up are necessary to explain it's association with mortality.