Maternal serum and umbilical cord tumor marker levels at term pregnancy

Background. The aim of the study was to compare the levels in fetal and maternal compartments of cancer antigen (CA) 125, CA 15‐3, carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19‐9, and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and to determine the effects of fetal sex, parity, and fetal weight on umbilical cord (UC) and maternal serum (MS) levels of these markers. Methods. MS and UC levels of these markers were determined in blood samples taken simultaneously during cesarean delivery for 53 cases. All statistical analyses were performed using nonparametric tests (Wilcoxon's signed rank test, Mann–Whitney U‐test, Kruskal–Wallis anova). Correlations were evaluated with Spearman's rank correlation coefficients. Results. All marker levels of MS were significantly different to those of UC. There was no association between MS and UC levels of four markers and fetal sex. No significant difference could be demonstrated between fetal weight and marker levels in MS and UC. No significant difference could be demonstrated between parity and marker levels except CEA in MS that was elevated in multigravida group. Conclusions. Our results support that all markers except CA 15‐3 have oncofetal origin. We concluded that further studies are required to reveal the effects of fetal sex on MS CA 19‐9 and effects of parity on MS CEA levels.