To investigate the role of sialy-Tn antigen in various gynecologic malignancies, we obtained serum samples from patients with benign and malignant tumors. Malignant tumors were 90 cervical cancers, 41 ovarian cancers and 9 endometrial cancers,
and
benign tumors were 32 uterine myomas, 54 benign ovarian tumors and 26 cervical carcinoma in situ. Circulating serum STN-antigen concentrations (U/ml) were determined by using a competitive radio-immunoassay kit (Otsuka Assay laboratories,
Tokushima,
Japan). Using cutoff value of 38 U/ml, 13.3%(12/90) of cervical cancers, 22.2%(2/9) of endometrial cancers, 36.6%(15/41) of ovarian cancers had positive results, But in patients with myoma of benign ovarian tumors, abnormal STN elevation was not
observed except one case of ovarian endometrioma. Mucinous ovarian cancer showed higher positive rate (41.7%, 5/12) than serous(33.3%, 1/3), but it was not statistically significant. Postoperative follow up samples were obtained from 71 cancer
patients
(9 ovarian cancer, 60 cervix cancer, 2 endometrial cancer). Among 9 patients with initially elevated STN level, only 5 patients showed significant decrease in serum STN antigen levels. Because of its low sensitivity and histologic specificity,
STN
antigen has limited clinical value in gynecologic malignancy. But it showed very low positive rate in benign ovarian tumors and myomas, and so the combination of STN antigen with other tumor markers may compensate the false positive rate in
diagnosing
gynecologic malignancy. The use of the STN antigen as a tumor marker for various gynecologic cancers requires further study.
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