Advances in tumor markers of ovarian cancer for early diagnosis.

ABSTRACT

Ovarian cancer often occurs in perimenopausal women. The mortality of ovarian cancer is in the first place among gynecological cancers because of no obvious early symptoms and the lack of effective diagnostic approach. Gene chips, proteomics, immunohistochemistry and other methods have become hot topics for early diagnosis of ovarian cancer. However, due to the variety of pathology and not clear enough of mechanism and etiology, there is still no ideal tumor markers with both high specific and sensitivity, which can be applied into clinical early diagnosis for ovarian cancer. Therefore, a new systematic method with high sensitivity and specificity for early diagnosis of ovarian cancer and new tumor markers need to be identified. We should make an examination of ovarian cancer in the early period in the crowd for early diagnosis and early treatment to further improve life quality of patients. This paper reviewed the recent advancements of tumor markers for early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.