Circulating Adipokines, Tissue Receptor Expression, and Body Composition: Clinical Relevance and Disease Stage in Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma

Background/Objectives: Nutritional status and adipose tissue-derived mediators have been implicated in the development and clinical characteristics of epithelial ovarian carcinoma; however, studies integrating circulating adipokines, adipokine receptor expression, and nutritional status remain limited. This study aimed to evaluate circulating adipokine concentrations, adipokine receptor expression, nutritional status parameters, and their associations with clinically relevant features and disease stage in women with epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Methods: A total of 151 women were included, comprising 43 patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma, 89 with benign ovarian tumors, and 19 healthy controls. The nutritional status parameters included body composition, dietary intake, and serum glucose concentration. Circulating adipokines were quantified by ELISA, whereas adipokine receptor expression was evaluated by automated immunohistochemistry in patients with available tumor tissue. Associations with clinicopathological variables were assessed using correlation analyses and multivariable regression models. Results: Compared with women with benign ovarian tumors, women with epithelial ovarian carcinoma had significantly lower circulating leptin concentrations, whereas their circulating resistin concentrations were significantly higher than in healthy controls. In multivariable analysis, lower leptin and higher resistin concentrations were associated with clinical disease classification, while lower leptin was also associated with advanced-stage disease. Visceral fat was associated with clinical disease classification. In addition, AdipoR1 expression was significantly more frequent in malignant than in benign ovarian tumors. Conclusions: Circulating leptin and resistin, visceral fat, and AdipoR1 expression were associated with clinically relevant characteristics across the study groups. Together, these findings provide a more comprehensive characterization of the metabolic and inflammatory alterations associated with epithelial ovarian carcinoma and may contribute to the identification of potential clinically relevant markers.