Independent expression in serum of three tumour-associated antigens: CA 125, placental alkaline phosphatase and HMFG2 in ovarian carcinoma.

Circulating levels of CA 125, the HMFG2 antigen and placental alkaline phosphatase were measured in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. In 37 patients the antigens were assayed before operation and 161 follow-up samples from 41 patients were assayed at different times during treatment. These three human tumour-associated antigens were expressed independently of each other. Measurement of all three antigens, compared with measurement of CA 125 alone, resulted in a statistically significant improvement in the detection rate of patients with localized disease from 18% to 69%.