Cancer antigen-125 is a predictor of mortality in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension

Background: Carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA 125), known as a tumor marker for ovarian cancer, has been reported to increase and be associated with severity in heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension may also die due to developing right heart failure. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prognostic role of CA-125 in PAH patients. Methods: A total of 40 consecutive patients with PAH were evaluated prospectively. The mean age of patients was 52 ± 11 years (12% males, 88% females) with a median follow-up period of 16 months. Results: After follow-up period, 12 out of 40 patients (30%) died. CA-125 levels were higher among those who died compared to those who survived [78.5 (11.0–292) vs. 27.5 (2.10–138) U/ml, p = 0.001]. The optimal cut-off value of CA-125 to predict mortality was found as 35.29 U/ml, with 85.7% specificity and 75% sensitivity. In multivariable Cox proportional-hazards model with forward stepwise method; CA-125 > 35.32 U/ml on admission (HR = 7.645, 95% CI: 1.356–43.121, p = 0.021), age (HR = 1.132, 95% CI: 1.040–1.233, p = 0.004), TAPSE (HR = 0.740, 95% CI: 0.549–0.998, p = 0.048) and uric acid (HR = 1.444, 95% CI: 1.022–2.042, p = 0.037) remained associated with an increased risk of death. Conclusion: In this study, we showed for the first time that serum CA-125 values were an independent predictor for the long-term mortality in PAH patients.