Cancer antigen-125 useful biomarker for preeclampsia severity?

The researchers found higher levels of serum CA-125 in the severe preeclampsia group versus the normotensive and non-severe preeclampsia group, but the difference was not statistically significant.

Preeclampsia is a potentially dangerous pregnancy complication characterised by high BP and is often associated with unfavourable feto-maternal outcomes. There is a lack in its pathophysiology, emphasizing the need to research for tests that can correlate with or predict the severity of preeclampsia.

Cancer antigen-125 is a readily available, simple biomarker with evidence of its secretion at the choriodecidual unit and may have a possible role. Pooja Bhatia, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, India, and colleagues compared serum CA-125 levels between normal pregnant women and women with preeclampsia. They determined its clinical usefulness in correlating with preeclampsia severity.

For this purpose, the researchers conducted a case-control study involving 58 women with preeclampsia. they were further divided into severe and non-severe groups and 62 gestational age-matched healthy, pregnant controls. A comparison was drawn of the serum CA-125 levels between the two groups.

The study revealed the following findings:

· The mean serum CA-125 in the controls was 16.44 ± 8.28 IU/ml, 13.82 ± 9.18 IU/ml in the non-severe and 23.55 ± 30.55 IU/ml in the severe pre-eclampsia group.

· Serum CA-125 had a significant association with systolic blood pressure (SBP), foetal growth restriction, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pre-term birth and a highly significant association with 24-h urinary protein, liver enzymes, placental abruption, need for maternal intensive care as well as with poor neonatal outcome including stillbirth and neonatal mortality.

"More studies on a larger scale are needed to prove the usefulness of this marker concerning perinatal and maternal outcome and its association with pre-eclampsia and its severity," the researchers concluded.

Reference:

Bhatia, P., Goel, P., Mehra, R. et al. Correlation of Serum Cancer Antigen-125 (CA-125) Levels with Severity of Pre-eclampsia. J Obstet Gynecol India (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13224-023-01869-2