Carbohydrate Antigen 125 (CA125)

CA-125 has found application as a tumor marker or biomarker that may be elevated in the blood of some patients with specific types of cancers.CA-125 is clinically approved for following the response to treatment and predicting prognosis after treatment. It is especially useful for detecting the recurrence of ovarian cancer. Its potential role for the early detection of ovarian cancer is controversial and has not yet been adopted for widespread screening efforts in asymptomatic women. The key problems in using the CA-125 test as a screening tool are its lack of sensitivity and its inability to detect early stage cancers. An operation would be necessary to confirm that a woman with elevated CA-125 has ovarian cancer, with the associated risk of death from major surgery.