Objective To study the significance of serum human epididymis protein 4 ( HE4 ) and human cartilage glycoprotein-39(YKL-40) in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer .Methods 100 patients with ovarian cancer , 90 patients with benign tumor of ovary and 50 healthy people were enrolled .Serum HE4 and YKL-40 were detected . Results The positive rates of serum HE 4 in ovarian cancer group , ovarian benign tumor group and healthy group were 86.0%,5.5%,2.0%.The positive rate of serum HE4 in ovarian carcinoma was significantly higher than that in benign ovarian tumor group and the healthy group (χ2 =31.06,30.82,all P<0.01).The positive rates of serum YKL-40 in ovarian cancer group ,ovarian benign tumor group and healthy group were 82.0%,3.3%,2.0%.The positive rate of serum YKL-40 in ovarian carcinoma was significantly higher than that in benign ovarian tumor group and the healthy group(χ2 =30.92,32.06,all P<0.01).Serum HE4 in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer ,the sensitivity was 86.0%,specificity of 95.7%,accuracy of 91.7%.Serum YKL-40 in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer ,the sensitivity was 82.0%,specificity of 97.1%,accuracy of 90.8%.For the joint detection,the sensitivity for diagnosis of ovarian cancer was 92.0%,and the specificity was 93.6%,accuracy was 95.0%,higher than those of the single detection . Conclusion Combined with serum HE 4 and YKL-40 detection can significantly improve the diagnostic accuracy of ovarian cancer patients .