title: Low serum creatine kinase levels in breast cancer patients: a case-control study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies provide an ambiguous picture of creatine kinase (CK) expression and activities in malignancy. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of serum CK level in breast cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  823 female patients diagnosed with breast cancer were consecutively recruited as cases, and 823 age-match patients with benign breast disease were selected as controls. Serum CK was analyzed by commercially available standardized methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum CK level was significantly associated with breast cancer (P = 0.005) and subtypes of breast cancer, including breast cancer with diameter>2 cm (P = 0.031) and stage IIIbreast cancer (P = 0.025). The mean serum CK level in patients with>2 cm tumor was significantly lower than that in≤2 cm (P = 0.0475), and the mean serum CK level of stage III breast cancer patients was significantly lower than that of stage I and II breast cancer patients (P = 0.0246). Furthermore, a significant difference (P = 0.004) was observed between serum CK level and ERBB2+breast cancer not other molecular subtypes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Serum CK levels in cases was significantly lower compared with controls. Notably, our results indicated for the first time that there was a negative correlation between serum CK levels and breast cancer stage. Serum CK level, which may reflect the status of host immunity, may be an important factor in determining breast cancer development and progression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Wenbin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jinqiu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Xiuqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Naping
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Mengdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Lijun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ling
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zha
authors.forename: Xiaoan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003402:Creatine Kinase / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D018570:Risk Assessment; D047368:Tumor Burden; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D003402:Creatine Kinase