The Open Clinical Cancer Journal
2008, 2 : 1-6Published online 2008 January 18 . DOI: 10.2174/1874189400802010001
Publisher ID: TOCCJ-2-1
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Metabolic Profile of Breast Cancer in a Population of Women in Southern Spain
* Address correspondence to this author at the Departamento de Medicina, Universidad de Cádiz, c/. Dr. Marañón, nº 6, 11002-Cádiz, Spain; Tel: +34- 956-015324; Fax: +34-956-015280; E-mail: juanbosco.lopez@uca.es
ABSTRACT
Background:
There are indications that mortality in breast cancer is related with dietary factors, but no study has been large enough to characterise reliably how, this risk is influenced. To establish a logistic regression equation that would predict breast cancer from factors in the endocrinological and metabolic profile, we studied endocrinological and metabolic risk factors that are modified by the diet, in a population of women with breast cancer in southern Spain.
Patients and Methods:
We carried out a simple a case-control study comparing 204 women with breast cancer (96 premenopausal and 108 postmenopausal women) and 250 healthy control subjects. The predictive variables were basal glycaemia, insulin, glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), C-peptide, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), total cholesterol, triglycerides, high density lipoprotein-c (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-c (LDL-C), selenium and Quetelet index (BMI).
Results:
The metabolic profile differed between pre- and postmenopausal patients, and metabolic alterations were greater in postmenopausal than in premenopausal women. The differences between healthy subjects and breast cancer patients were clearly significant.
Conclusions:
Our findings have several potential practical applications in the early detection of breast cancer, especially in premenopausal women; in primary prevention; and in the development of a mathematical model of breast carcinogenesis.