Association between clinicopathological features of breast cancer with adipocytokine levels and oxidative stress markers before and after chemotherapy

Abstract

Adipocytokines and markers of oxidative stress have been shown to exhibit potential for detection of advanced stage, HER2/neu status and lymph node metastases in patients with breast cancer, as well as in determining the efficiency of anti-cancer treatments. In the present study, blood concentrations of apelin (APLN), retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4), 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in women with breast cancer with different clinicopathological features were measured prior to and following adjuvant chemotherapy. The study included 60 women with breast cancer stratified according to tumor grade and size, HER-2/neu expression, and lymph node and hormone receptor status. Blood samples were taken before and after two cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy. None of the clinicopathological features were associated with the baseline concentrations of RBP4, 8-oxo-dG or TAC. An increased baseline concentration of APLN was observed in HER-2/neu positive patients. Moreover, through multivariate logistical regression analysis, APLN was shown to be independently associated with a positive HER/neu status. Chemotherapy treatment did not affect the levels of RBP4 or APLN, or TAC values when assessing all the patients, and when assessing the stratified groups of patients. Only 8-oxo-dG was found to be significantly decreased following drug administration (P=0.0009). This preliminary study demonstrated that APLN is a significant and independent predictor of HER-2/neu positive breast cancer. A significant reduction in 8-oxo-dG levels following chemotherapy may indicate its potential clinical utility in monitoring the effects of chemotherapy in breast cancer patients.

Molecular Biomarkers in Cancer

“…One of the best methods to assess oxidative stress is to study levels of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG). Interestingly, several studies have observed that levels of 8-oxo-dG in urine or blood may be a useful biomarker of therapy response in cancer patients [ 87 , 88 , 89 ].…”

Apelin, a Circulating Biomarker in Cancer Evaluation: A Systematic Review

“…Eight studies examined the relationships between apelin concentration and BMI and/or other body composition measurements (Table 3). Of those eight studies, four [18,19,31,32] reported no relationships between BMI or adipose tissue content and apelin concentration, while the other four studies [21][22][23]26] showed various levels of significant relationships, such as a positive correlation between BMI and apelin in three studies. One of these four studies [26] showed reduced apelin levels after 12 months had decreased waist-hip ratios and lower fat mass.…”

Roles of apelin/APJ system in cancer: Biomarker, predictor, and emerging therapeutic target

“…APLN can also be used as an independent predictor of breast cancer and apelin level can indirectly reflect the patient's chemotherapy effect, which also shows the potential clinical utility of apelin. The tumor expression of apelin in BC is also related to adverse reactions to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (Grupińska et al, 2021). Apelin/APJ system can significantly reduce the therapeutic effect of VEGF inhibitors in patients with ovarian cancer.…”

“…Apelin/APJ system pay an essential role in the occurrence and development of various cancers, which is closely related to the high recurrence and mortality of multiple cancers, such as liver cancer (Hall et al, 2017), gastroesophageal cancer (GC; Diakowska et al, 2014), colon cancer (Picault et al, 2014), breast cancer, multiple myeloma (MM; Maden et al, 2016), glioblastoma (GBM; Aktan & Ozmen, 2019), renal cell carcinoma (RCC; H. P. Zhang, et al, 2017), oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC; Heo et al, 2012), endometrial cancer (Altinkaya et al, 2015), and lung cancer (Berta et al, 2010; De Munck et al, 2020). Furthermore, apelin/APJ system even affects the efficacy of some anticancer drugs, thereby affecting the efficacy of cancer treatment and the occurrence of poor prognosis (Y. Chen et al, 2021; Gourgue et al, 2021; Grupińska et al, 2021; D. Lv et al, 2021). These evidence indicated that apelin/APJ system plays an indispensable role in the cancer progression by influencing tumor microenvironment, angiogenesis, blood vessel density, cell migration and invasion, and cell apoptosis through multiple pathways (Baran et al, 2020; Masoumi et al, 2020; Masri et al, 2009; Podgórska et al, 2018).…”

“…Furthermore, apelin/APJ system even affects the efficacy of some anticancer drugs, thereby affecting the efficacy of cancer treatment and the occurrence of poor prognosis (Y. Chen et al, 2021;Gourgue et al, 2021;Grupińska et al, 2021;D. Lv et al, 2021).…”