Article Text
Abstract
Objectives Breast Cancer (BC) is the mostly spread malignant disease among women worldwide. Lipids play important roles in several biochemical pathways on molecular and cellular level, such as synthesis of steroid hormones, which contributes to the development of BC. Therefore, we investigated levels following plasma lipids: cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and triglycerides (TG), and sex-steroid hormones: progesterone (P), estradiol (E2) and testosterone (T) in pre-menopausal (20–45 years) women with benign or malignant breast tumors.
Methods We studied the lipid profile among the pre-menopausal (20–45 years) women with breast tumors. Venous blood samples were tested for investigation investigation. P < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant.
Results According to our investigation, higher CHOL level were associated with benign (P=0.0002), and malignant (P=0.0001) tumors compared with control group. The level of HDL decreases in benign (P=0.0002) and malignant (P<0.001) tumor groups compared with the control group. LDL level was elevated in both groups, as well, in benign and malignant tumors respectively (P=0.002, P<0.001). VLDL level was also decreased in both tumor subtypes respectively (P=0.0003; P=0.0007) compare to control group. Similarly, TG level was increased in benign (P=0.0025), and in malignant breast tumors (P=0.002) compared with controls. E2 and T levels were elevated in tumors in tumor’s group (P<0.05).
Conclusions Our investigation has shown the association between high levels of CHOL, LDL,TG, E2 and T with breast tumors. Lipid profile and steroid hormones may be used as relatively reliable prognostic marker for early breast cancer prevention and diagnostics.