Abstract
In breast cancer, unlike other cancers, there are few studies which take attention to the levels of biomarkers according to the surgery. In this article, we compare the diagnostic sing of selected growth factors and the classical tumor markers CEA and CA 15-3 in breast cancer.
The group of patients consisted of 89 women with malignant breast cancer in stages I-III, median age 65 years (min. 32 - max. 84 years). For each woman we had two blood samples.
The first sample was the final examination before surgery and the second sample was taken up for seven days after surgery. We determined the following parameters: CEA, CA 15-3, IGF1, HGF, EGF, VEGF.
We assessed changes in levels of various biomarkers before and after surgery. Serum CEA and CA 15-3 were determined by an analytical system DxI Beckman Coulter (USA), IGF1 using the radioisotopic method IGF1 by IMMUNOTECH IRMA (France).
For determination of growth factors HGF, EGF and VEGF was used multiplex panel Luminex xMAP by MERCK (USA). Mean and median of the preoperative values for all biomarkers were higher than postoperativ.
After the surgery, we have demonstrated a significant decrease in CEA (p = 0.0046), CA 15-3 (p = 0.0278) and VEGF (p = 0.0434). Other biomarkers had higher values before and after the operation lower, but the difference was not statistically significant.
In all monitored biomarkers the decreasing the levesl was observed. A significant decrease was present in CEA, CA 15-3, and VEGF.
Decrease in the levels of CEA and CA 15-3 can be considered as a measure of the effect of surgery. VEGF showed a decline on the borderline of significance.