Abstract

Introduction: Chronic inflammation can predispose to different forms of cancer. It was found to play a role in the development and progression of breast cancer. This study was conducted to evaluate some inflammatory markers at diagnosis of patients with breast cancer compared to those under chemotherapy.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, enrolled 150 female patients with breast cancer at the National Oncology Center, Aden, from August 1st, 2022 to August 1st, 2023. Sixty patients were newly diagnosed breast cancer cases (group I) and 90 patients were under chemotherapy (group II). Demographic, clinical and histologic data were collected, and patients were tested for the following inflammatory markers; white blood cells count (WBC), platelets count, erythrocytes sedimentation rate (ESR), serum ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), beta -2- macroglobulin (β2-M), C-reactive protein (CRP), cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3), and carcinoemberyonic antigen (CEA).

Results: The mean age of patients was 48.8 ± 11.2 years, and mean body mass index (BMI) of 25.2 ± 4.8 Kg/m². Most of them were ever married (88.0%), postmenopausal (62.7%), parous (79.3%), with family history of breast cancer (50.0%). Histologically, higher percentages of them had invasive ductal carcinoma (85.3%), late stages breast cancer (63.3%), positive estrogen and progesterone receptors (67.3% and 60.0%, respectively), positive human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 detected in (35.3%) and lymphovascular invasion in (29.3%). All the studied inflammatory markers showed significantly lower mean or median values in group II when compared to group I, with higher significance level for total WBC count, ESR, and β₂M.

Conclusion: Different simple inflammatory markers can be used in assessment of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and in follow-up of chemotherapy response.

Keywords: Breast Cancer, Inflammatory, Markers, Chemotherapy, Response.

• PDF