Seven tumor markers in benign and malignant germ cell tumors of the ovary.

Seven tumor markers were analyzed clinically in 135 patients with germ cell tumors of the ovary who were treated in Tokai Ovarian Tumor Study Group, an association comprising Nagoya University and its affiliated hospitals, between January 1979 and September 1990. Positive rate of AFP was 100% (36/36) in yolk sac tumor, 61.9% (13/21) in immature teratoma, and 11.8% (2/17) in dysgerminoma, but there were no positive cases of mature cystic teratoma with malignant transformation (0/7) and mature cystic teratoma (0/31). Positive rate of CA125 was over 50% in all tumor types except mature cystic teratoma, which showed a positive rate of 23.7%. CA125 was useful for the screening of malignant germ cell tumors. CA19-9 showed a high positive rate in teratomatous tumors, which were immature teratoma, mature cystic teratoma with malignant transformation, and mature cystic teratoma. Dysgerminoma and yolk sac tumor, especially dysgerminoma, had a high positive rate of LDH. TPA and CEA were not considered useful tumor markers for germ cell tumors of the ovary.