Mini-Review Article

Is HE4 Superior over CA-125 in the Follow-up of Patients with Epithelial Ovarian Cancer?

Author(s): Khalid El Bairi*, Said Afqir and Mariam Amrani

Volume 21, Issue 10, 2020

Page: [1026 - 1033] Pages: 8

DOI: 10.2174/1389450121666200425211732

Price: $65

Abstract

Notwithstanding important advances in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), this disease is still a leading cause of global high mortality from gynecological malignancies. Recurrence in EOC is inevitable and it is responsible for poor survival rates. There is a critical need for novel effective biomarkers with improved accuracy compared to the standard carbohydrate antigen-125 (CA-125) for follow-up. The human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) is used for early detection of EOC (ROMA algorithm) as well as for predicting optimal cytoreduction after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and survival outcomes. Notably, the emerging HE4 is a promising prognostic biomarker that has displayed better accuracy in various recent studies for detecting recurrent disease. In this mini-review, we discussed the potential of HE4 as an accurate predictor of EOC recurrence.

Keywords: HE4, prognostic biomarkers, ovarian cancer, recurrence, follow-up, survival.

Graphical Abstract

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