Afamin and apolipoprotein A-IV: novel protein markers for ovarian cancer.

Comparative proteomics identified the vitamin E-binding plasma protein afamin as a potential novel tumor marker for ovarian cancer. In addition, we observed in a previous small study decreased plasma concentrations of apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) in preoperative patients with kidney cancer.
Afamin, but not apoA-IV, added independent diagnostic information to CA125 and age for differentiating ovarian cancer from benign and healthy samples; the odds ratio of ovarian cancer was reduced by 44% for each doubling of afamin (P = 0.032). The relatively low sensitivity, however, clearly indicates that afamin and apoA-IV alone are not sufficiently suitable as diagnostic markers for ovarian cancer. Afamin contributes, however, independent diagnostic information to CA125, thus establishing its potential as an adjunct marker to CA125.

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 Apr;18(4):1127-33.
Dieplinger H, Ankerst DP, Burges A, Lenhard M, Lingenhel A, Fineder L, Buchner H, Stieber P.