L'IMPIEGO DEI BIOMARCATORI SIERICI NELLA GESTIONE CLINICA DELL'ENDOMETRIOSI

Endometriosis is a frequent gynecological disorder that affects 3% to 15% of the general premenopausal female population. Recently, some studies have suggested that women suffering from endometriosis, especially if ovarian endometriosis (endometrioma), have a risk increased up to eight times compared to the general female population to develop ovarian cancer or borderline ovarian tumor. The HE4 marker was proposed in combination with the CA125 and the menopausal status of the woman to calculate the risk that a pelvic mass may be malignant. However, very high concentrations of CA125 are present in women with endometrioma and in women with benign deep infiltrating endometriosis. It was therefore decided to verify the efficacy of the HE4 marker alone in identifying cases of endometrioma with proven histological benignity. Using 70 pmol / L as the reference cutoff as per literature, only 10.3% (i.e. 3 patients out of 28) showed HE4 values higher than the cut-off. However, if the cut-off value had been raised to 80 pmol / L, 100% of the patients would have had lower values than this cut-off.