[Ceruloplasmin in the diagnosis of gynecologic tumors]

Serum caeruloplasmin levels were measured in women with ovarian, collum and corpus carcinomata using three different assay methods. The enzyme assay gave a median value of 0.26 g/l, the SPALT (solid phase antigen luminescence technique) a median value of 0.78 g/l and the ILMA (immunoluminometric assay) a median of 0.44 g/l. A group of blood donors, taken as the reference group, had a median value of 0.29 g/l in the SPALT assay, which was significantly lower than in the tumour group measured by this method. The ILMA and enzymatic assay values were not significantly different from those measured in the reference group. The differences in the SPALT method can be ascribed to the possibility that this assay measures not only "intact" caeruloplasmin but also paraneoplastic substances with "caeruloplasmin-like immunoactivity". The median of the concentration of tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) was significantly different from those measured in the reference group. The concentrations of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were not different from the reference group.