It is very important to establish a tumor marker combination with strong lead-time effects in early detection of recurrent ovarian cancer. This retrospective study included 32 patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer after primary therapy. The serum levels of tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS) and carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA-125) were followed-up. Normal upper limits of serum levels of 78.5 U/l for TPS and 35 U/ml for CA-125 were selected according to the 95th percentile of serum concentrations measured in healthy control patients. When compared with other follow-up modalities, TPS and CA-125 appeared lead-time effective with early diagnosis of recurrent ovarian cancer in 18 and 16 patients, respectively. This difference was not statistically significant. The combination of TPS and CA-125 provided lead-time effects in 24 patients. Our data indicate that the combination of TPS and CA-125 is a potential tool in the early prediction of recurrent ovarian cancer.
