CA-125 and Ovarian Cancer
- CA-125 is a marker in the blood that can become elevated with ovarian cancer
- But the levels can also become elevated due to a number of other reasons, so CA-125 isn’t great on its own
- When evaluated in combination with physical exams and imagining tests, CA-125 can better inform ovarian cancer screening, treatment efficacy, and surveillance
CA-125 levels can become elevated for many reasons, explains Amanda Westwood, a physician assistant at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. But if you have a transvaginal ultrasound and a mass appears, that information, in combination with the CA-125 levels, can indicate ovarian cancer.
Read More After the point of diagnosis, CA-125 can be somewhat helpful throughout the treatment journey, since the levels may change according to how well a treatment is working. “It’s not the best marker,” says Westwood. “But it’s a marker we use for the management because if someone presents with an elevated CA-125, we use it to kind of watch to see how they respond to treatment.” If chemotherapy is working, for instance, CA-125 levels usually drop a fair amount throughout chemotherapy.
Then, after treatment, CA-125 can become a tool to monitor for recurrence.
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