Serum CA-125 levels in women with ectopic and intrauterine pregnancies.

In women with ectopic pregnancies the extrauterine compartments are exposed to fetal tissue. Since such tissue is known to express CA-125, we measured serum levels of CA-125 in patients with ectopic pregnancies and compared them to those in patients with intrauterine pregnancies. A total of 44 pregnant women were included in the study; all were in the first trimester. Twenty-seven of them had ectopic pregnancies, and 17 had intrauterine ones. Our results show that women with ectopic pregnancies, ruptured or unruptured, were more likely to have elevated levels of serum CA-125 than were women who had intrauterine pregnancies.