Cardiac, Hepatic and Renal Dysfunction and IL-18 Polymorphism in Breast, Colorectal, and Prostate Cancer Patients

Abstract

Introduction:The present study aimed to determine the alterations in the serum levels of tumor markers used to evaluate cardiac, renal and liver function, and detect the interleukin (IL)-18 rs1946518 polymorphism in breast (BC), colorectal (CRC) and prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Methods: Blood samples were collected from 65 female BC, 116 CRC, 79 PCa and 88 myocardial infarction (MI) patients, and 110 healthy individuals to determine the concentration of tumor and cardiac markers. Furthermore, the IL-18 rs1946518 polymorphism was assessed using amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-PCR. Results: The serum levels of the tumor markers cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and total prostate-specific antigen (TPSA) were significantly increased in cancer patients compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, the activity of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB) was enhanced in MI patients, however, their activity was unchanged in cancer patients. The activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and the serum concentration of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and urea were markedly elevated in CRC and PCa patients, respectively, compared with the control group. Although, no significant differences were observed in the -607 C/A polymorphism and allele frequency of IL-18 among BC, CRC patients and healthy individuals, the odds ratio (OR) was 1.75 for both C and A allele in BC patients. Therefore, the -607 C/A polymorphism could be considered as a risk factor for BC. Conclusion: The aforementioned results suggested that tumor markers could be considered as excellent biomarkers for the early detection of BC, CRC and PCa, whereas the concentration of liver enzymes could serve as an alternative indicator for the diagnosis of CRC and PCa. Additionally, the rs1946518 polymorphism in the IL-18 gene could be considered as a risk factor for the occurrence of BC, CRC and PCa.

A faecal microbiota signature with high specificity for pancreatic cancer

“…Yet to date, the sole Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved PDAC biomarker remains serum carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9. CA19-9 has limited disease specificity as levels can be elevated in several other concomitant conditions (eg, biliary obstruction) and is therefore mostly used as a marker for PDAC surveillance, rather than screening or diagnosis 10–14…”

“…CA19-9 has limited disease specificity as levels can be elevated in several other concomitant conditions (eg, biliary obstruction) and is therefore mostly used as a marker for PDAC surveillance, rather than screening or diagnosis. [10][11][12][13][14] PDAC has a complex aetiology, with established risk factors that include age, chronic pancreatitis, diabetes mellitus, obesity, asthma, blood group and lifestyle (eg, smoking and heavy alcohol consumption). 15 16 The role of these risk factors in PDAC aetiology may also be complemented-or sometimes indeed mediated-by alterations in the microbiome.…”

Genetically Predicted Circulating Concentrations of Alanine and Alanine Aminotransferase Were Associated with Prostate Cancer Risk

“… 34 A case–control study including 194 patients with prostate cancer and 210 controls did not find evidence for an association between ALT and risk of prostate cancer (mean ± SD: 20.08 ± 10.87 vs 21.71 ± 13.21), 10 whereas another cross-sectional study reported that prostate patients with poorly differentiated tumors had a higher ALT level (0.35ukat/l vs 0.39ukat/l) than had patients with well-differentiated clinical prostate cancer, 29 and Govand et al indicated that the activity of ALT was higher in patients with prostate cancer compared with controls (median and range, 16.25:11.38–29.05 vs 17.1:11.33–31.75). 9 These conflicting findings from conventional observational studies may because that these studies are susceptible to biases, such as reverse causation and residual confounding (eg, cancer staging, dietary, or molecular factors), which may confound the observational association estimates between ALT and prostate cancer. Nevertheless, evidence from a meta-analysis reported an inverse association between circulating levels of ALT and risk of overall cancer in European populations (RR per 1 SD=0.96, 95% CI: 0.94–0.99), 35 suggesting that ALT may be involved in carcinogenesis.…”

“… 8 In addition, transaminases, such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT), were found to be markedly elevated in serum samples from patients with prostate cancer, compared with controls. 9 However, Zhou et al reported that there were no differences in the serum levels of ALT in patients with prostate cancer compared with those diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia. 10 Since the above findings were from traditional observational epidemiological studies, which may be vulnerable to bias such as confounding and reverse causation, it remains unclear whether these AAs and transaminases are causally associated with the risk of prostate cancer.…”

Inflammasomes in breast cancer: the ignition spark of progression and resistance?

“…87). IL-18-rs1946518, IL-18-607 and IL18-137 gene polymorphisms were significantly correlated with increased risk of BC (Refs 88, 89, 90, 91). It's also worth mentioning that IL-18 was overexpressed in tumour samples (Refs 92, 93), plasma (Ref.…”