title: Significance of vascular endothelial growth factor, interleukin-18 and nitric oxide in patients with breast cancer: correlation with carbohydrate antigen 15.3.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine serum concentrations of angiogenic factors including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin 18 (IL-18) and nitric oxide (NO) in patients with breast cancer and to evaluate whether these factors will be correlated with CA 15.3, as a routine tumor marker for breast cancer or not. This study was conducted on 44 patients with breast cancer and 15 healthy individuals as a control group. The results demonstrated significant increase in serum IL-18, NO and CA 15.3 levels in sera of breast cancer patients when compared to those of the control group (P < 0.001, P = 0.016 and P < 0.001, respectively). However, the mean serum level of VEGF in patients as showed insignificant increase compared to that of the controls was not significant (P = 0.311). Sensitivity of CA 15.3, VEGF, IL-18 and NO to detect patients with disease was 52.2, 21.3, 77.2 and 70.4 %, respectively. In addition, positive status of serum CA 15.3 and/or IL-18 was found in 39 out of 44 (88.6 %) patients, and the positive status of serum CA 15.3 and/or NO was only found in 35 out of 44 (79.5 %). In conclusion, the simultaneous determination of IL-18 or NO in combination with the CA 15.3 may increase the sensitivity to diagnose breast cancer and may aid in disease prognosis.
authors: Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt.
authors: Fatehya M
authors: FM
authors: Metwally
authors: Hatem A
authors: HA
authors: El-mezayen
authors: Hanaa H
authors: HH
authors: Ahmed
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020382:Interleukin-18 / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000097:blood*; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000097:blood*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000097:blood*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D020382:Interleukin-18; D018396:Mucin-1; C467484:VEGFA protein, human; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D009569:Nitric Oxide