Introduction/Background Ovarian cancer (OC) is a lethal malignancy that lacks a sensitive biomarker for diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. Mucin proteins (MUC) proteins have played a promising role as a diagnostic biomarker. We analyzed MUC1 and MUC4 for this purpose.

Methodology We analyzed 31cases of OC and 8 benign ovarian cysts. Pre-therapy whole blood sample was taken and serum levels of MUC1, MUC4 & MUC 16 (CA 125) were evaluated. Cut off for MUC1 and MUC4 was set using ROC curve analysis at highest sensitivity and specificity, 141.3ng/mL and 1.206ng/mL respectively. The values were compared with CA125 (established cutoff 35 U/ml).

Results Serum level of MUC1 was higher in 33/39 cases (28/31 in malignant cases, 3/8 in benign cases).

However, serum level of MUC4 was lower in 33/39 cases (26/31 in malignant cases, 5/8 in benign cases).

CA125 was higher in 33/39 cases (28/31 in malignant cases, 4/8 in benign cases).Higher levels of MUC1 were seen in HGSC, mucinous, endometriod, clear cell type of OC 16, 4, 3 & 2 respectively (p-value 0.567). Lower level of MUC4 was associated with diagnosis of ovarian cancer (p=0.9709). Higher level of CA125 was associated with cancer (p=0.0025), Type 2 tumor (p= 0.0013), advanced stage (p= 0.0087) and presence of omental metastasis (p= 0.0311).

The sensitivity and specificity of CA125 in this study was 90.32% and 62.5% respectively, for MUC1 90.32% and 50% respectively and for MUC4 83.87% and 37.5% respectively.

Conclusion Serum level of Mucin 1 was increased in ovarian cancer, while that of MUC4 was decreased in OC. A combined panel of mucin 1, MUC4 and ca125 can aid in better diagnosis of OC.

Disclosures N/A