Circulating tumor cell detection during chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer is not associated with plasma homocysteine levels

Abstract

Breast cancer remains the second most frequent type of cancer in the world and the first among women, and systemic chemotherapy is an adjuvant therapeutic modality that improves survival in a great part of patients. Women with breast cancer, however, frequently show a higher risk of thromboembolism, an event associated to hyperhomocysteinemia and the presence of circulating tumor cells (CTC). Our aim is to correlate the presence of CTCs, detected by the analysis of CK19 and c-erbB2 gene expressions, and the homocysteine plasma levels in the peripheral blood in patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Epithelial marker expression (CK19 and c-erbB2) and homocysteine levels were analyzed in a mononuclear fraction of the peripheral blood and plasma, respectively, obtained from 35 patients diagnosed with breast cancer at diagnosis and throughout chemotherapy treatment. No significant relation between the CK19 and c-erbB2 expressions and hyperhomocysteinemia was observed at any moment of the evaluation throughout the chemotherapy treatment (3 and 6 months after the onset). Among clinical data, only menopausal status showed a statistically significant correlation with homocysteine concentration. Although differences in the expressions of the analyzed epithelial markers were detected at 3 and 6 months of chemotherapy treatment, no relation between plasma homocysteine variations and the CK19 and c-erbB2 gene expressions was found in patients under chemotherapy treatment at any moment of the evaluation, suggesting that chemotherapy affects the expressions of the studied genes independently.

Plasma Total Homocysteine Level in Association With Folate, Pyridoxine, and Cobalamin Status Among Iranian Primary Breast Cancer Patients

“…Beyond the focus on hyperhomocysteinemia by numerous vascular studies, it has recently emerged that tHcy might be a potent modifiable risk factor for carcinogenesis of malignancies such as breast, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers (1,2,10,14,47,51). Surprisingly, it has been suggested that cancerous cells are almost susceptible to produce higher amount of homocysteine (10,52). In line with our findings, a few studies have noted the manifestation of high tHcy in metastasis and advanced stages of BC (10,11).…”

Survinin expression in patients with breast cancer during chemotherapy

“…In general, regardless the stage in which the patient is, breast cancer has good prognosis, if diagnosed and treated in an early stage. On the other hand, the worse prognosis for these patients would be the detection of metastasis, which is not yet fully understood, but wisely associated to the spread of the tumor cells to different parts of the body and a consequent decrease in survival [3][4][5].…”