The WHO report revealed that breast cancer (BC) topped the list among various types of cancers in women in Bangladesh. The prognosis of metastatic breast cancer depends on certain factors, like surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal receptor content of the tumor or associated illness such as diabetes mellitus and obesity. Among the associated illness, diabetes mellitus is one of the most common metabolic disease worldwide, which is linked to an increased risk of developing breast cancer and an even higher risk of recurrence and dying from this disease. In this context, we studied diabetic and metabolic disease related growth and metabolic factors in breast cancer patients for the better prognosis of BC.
A total of 180 mastectomy patients were purposively taken in the present study. Data were collected from retrospective information. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters were taken by standard methods. Growth and metabolic factors were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method.
Serum level of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) was found to be significantly higher (p = 0.001) in ER and PR negative breast cancer than their positive counterparts. Patients who had lymph node positive and Her2 borderline showed a significant reduction in serum adiponectin level (p < 0.05) and this association was retained after adjusting the confounding variables. Furthermore, delayed treatment, IGF-1, ALP, sleeping hours were significant predictors for metastasis of breast cancer patients in Bangladesh. The Diabetic-BC patients treated with both insulin and oral drug was found to be negatively associated with metastasis breast cancer while comparing with Diabetic-BC patients treated with only oral drugs (p < 0.05). However, BC metastasis did not any have an association with serum fasting insulin or insulin resistance. Obesity also did not show any relation with BC prognosis.
Serum IGF-1 and adiponectin may have an association with invasiveness and metastasis of breast cancer. Diabetes treatment management may also be related to breast cancer prognosis; however, this study result is unable to reveal its mechanism.
Salima Akter, Department of Medical Biotechnology, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.