Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the serum and peritoneal fluid adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity in patients with benign and malignant ovarian neoplasms.
Methods: This is a prospective cross-sectional study performed in Cukurova University, Department of Gynecologic Oncology. Eighty-four patients with ovarian mass were included in this study within 13 months. The levels of serum and peritoneal fluid ADA levels were measured and compared in patients with benign and malignant ovarian neoplasms and also low- and high-grade malignant tumors.
Results: Serum and peritoneal fluid ADA levels were found to be significantly higher in patients with ovarian cancers as compared with benign ovarian tumors (p = 0.001). Additionally, ADA levels were found to be significantly different according to the histopathological subtypes and grade of ovarian cancers. However, there was no significant difference for ADA levels between the benign and low-grade malignant tumors. There was an important correlation between the peritoneal fluid and serum ADA levels.
Conclusions: Serum and peritoneal fluid ADA levels were found to be higher in malignant ovarian neoplasms. This finding may be useful to understand the biochemically characteristics of malignant ovarian tumors and ADA may be a useful biomarker in diagnosis and management of ovarian tumors.