Diagnostic accuracy of intraoperative haptoglobin point-of-care testing in ovarian tumor fluid versus frozen section for epithelial ovarian cancer

OBJECTIVE: Ovarian cancer is the third most common gynaecological cancer and has the high mortality rates and requires accurate intraoperative. Haptoglobin is an acute-phase protein locally elevated in cancer cells, may serve as a novel diagnostic marker. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a haptoglobin point-of-care test using intraoperatively aspirated ovarian cyst fluid for detecting epithelial ovarian carcinoma. RESULT: A total of 55 patients with suspected malignant ovarian tumors were enrolled, with 11 excluded, resulting in 44 patients for analysis. Frozen sections were found to have a diagnostic accuracy of 100% compared with histopathology, whereas haptoglobin had an accuracy of 90.91%. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of the haptoglobin test were 90.48, 91.3, 90.49, and 91.3%, respectively. Haptoglobin testing in ovarian cyst fluid demonstrates promising diagnostic performance and may serve as a complementary tool alongside established intraoperative methods.