title: Carcinogenesis alters fatty acid profile in breast tissue.
abstract: Cancerogenesis is associated with cell membrane changes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether breast tissues with different degrees of cancer involvement have different fatty acid profiles. Fourteen breast cancer patients with a mean age of 61 years were recruited. Morphological features of the tumoral specimens were characterized. Approximately 60 % of patients had invasive ductal carcinoma, and 80 % were ER positive; 65 % were PR positive; and 65 % were HER2 negative. The segments with confirmed cancer had significantly less amounts of total lipids as compared with the corresponding grossly normal or interface tissues. The fatty acid profile in cancer tissue was significantly different from that in other tissues. Fatty acid composition of five classes of phospholipids revealed the variations between cancer tissue and the other two segments. A transition of changes in fatty acid composition in these fractions of phospholipids was observed. The interface tissue had intermediate amounts of several fatty acids including palmitic acid, stearic acid, and arachidonic acid. Interestingly, we observed significantly higher amounts of the n-3 fatty acid DHA in cancer tissue as compared to the other two tissues. Data from this study will provide evidence that biochemical changes particularly phospholipid composition may take place well in advance prior to morphological changes. Should this theory be confirmed by larger studies, deviation of phospholipid composition from normal values can be used as markers of susceptibility of tissue to cancer development.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Human Nutritional Sciences, Canadian Centre for Agri-Food Research in Health and Medicine, University of Manitoba, 351 Tache Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R2H 2A6, Canada.
authors.forename: Nazila
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Azordegan
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.forename: Khuong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Le
authors.forename: Lyn M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Hillyer
authors.forename: David W L
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Gabor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: Mohammed H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Moghadasian
mesh_terms: D016718:Arachidonic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D001940:Breast / Q000378:metabolism*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000378:metabolism*; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D019308:Palmitic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D013229:Stearic Acids / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016718:Arachidonic Acid; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids; D005227:Fatty Acids; D019308:Palmitic Acid; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone; D013229:Stearic Acids; C031183:stearic acid; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human