Levels of Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 (FGF21) in serum as diagnostic biomarker in patients with breast cancer

KNOTT M.E.; GUEGLIO G.; NUÑEZ M.; ROULET L.; RANUNCOLO S.M.; DE LORENZO M.; MINATTA J.N; PASIK L.; PURICELLI L.

New Orleans

Congreso; AACR Meeting 2016; 2016

AACR

Epidemiological studies have suggested a close link between obesity and breast cancer. There is an immediate need to investigate the potential pathways linking obesity and breast cancer to have an early diagnosis in patients and optimize the chance of cure. FGF21 is a regulator of local and systemic metabolic homeostasis and its expression is induced in response to diverse physiological or pathological stressors. High serum levels of FGF21 were found in obese individuals, subjects withmetabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease. Up to date, the clinical implication of FGF21 in cancer was not elucidated. Our aim was to study the role of serum FGF21 asa diagnostic biomarker of breast cancer. The serum levels of FGF21 in 45 breast cancer women patients (median age 59, range 32-88 years) and 51 age-matched healthy controls were evaluated using a quantitative ELISA test (R&D Systems, Inc.). Patients? samples [Stage (S) SI: 17; SII: 17; SIII:6; ND: 5] were obtained before surgery, without any previous reatment. We included patients with carcinoma in situ (n = 2), invasive ductal (n = 31) and lobular (n = 8), special carcinoma (n = 2), ND:2. We observed that breast cancer patients showed significantly elevated values of serum FGF21 (median 224.55 pg/ml, range 24.15-776.19) respect to the levels observed in healthy controls (76.86,0.00-425.60) (KW and MW, p