Expression profile of interleukin-6, 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-α in women with breast cancer and their association with clinicopathological parameters.

Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy in women worldwide, representing a major public health burden. Therefore, there is a need to identify circulating biomarkers for the early detection of BC and to facilitate the diagnosis. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE), and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-α (HIF-1α) are biomarkers involved in the initiation and progression of this disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the concentrations of these molecules and to find a possible correlation with the clinicopathological parameters of patients with BC from western Algeria. Material and methods: We evaluated the serum levels of IL-6, 4-HNE, and HIF-1α by ELISA technique and compare them in different age groups and BC molecular subtypes, and then correlated them with clinicopathological parameters. Results: Our study revealed a significant increase in 4-HNE (p < 0.05), and a negative correlation (p < 0.05) was found between IL-6 serum levels and lymph node count, but not (p > 0.05) between 4-HNE, HIF-1α and lymph node count. No significant correlation (p > 0.05) was found between IL-6, 4-HNE, HIF-1α , and Scarff-Bloom-Richardson grade. Furthermore, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in serum levels of IL-6, 4-HNE, and HIF-1α in the different age groups and molecular subtypes of BC. Conclusions: The data obtained show that the presence of lipid peroxidation (4-HNE) is a marker of oxidative stress, and that IL-6 is a good prognostic factor due to its negative effect on the number of lymph nodes. Furthermore, age and BC molecular subtypes do not influence the serum concentrations of IL-6,4-HNE, and HIF-1α.

Prevalence and prognosis of molecular phenotypes in breast cancer patients by age: a population-based retrospective cohort study in western Algeria.

INTRODUCTION: breast cancer is related to age. The young age remains a controversial issue as a prognostic factor and have more aggressive clinical behavior with poor outcome. We aimed for the first time in Algeria to explore on a large cohort of patients the prevalence of the molecular phenotypes and to describe their clinical characteristics and survival. METHODS: medical record of 1140 Algerian patients were analysed and categorized into three age groups: "young" when women were aged below 40 years; "middle-age" when women were aged from 41 to 54 years old and "elder" when women were over 54 years. Baseline categorical variables were analysed using the Chi-square test and survival curves were constructed using Kaplan Meir method. RESULTS: the distribution of the various prognostic factors did not differ significativelly by age groups except for histological types, hormone receptors status and molecular phenotypes. Most patients were luminal A, indeed, young and intermediate age patients were most likely to be luminal A whereas the aged patients were triple negative with the highest mean DFS. Elsewhere young women are considered as human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2+) or triple negative molecular subtypes involving more rigorous therapeutic monitoring. The high rate of triple negative breast cancer in aged patients may due to genetic predispositions. CONCLUSION: this study sheds light on the histoclinical and molecular characteristics of breast cancer in young patients, which has a good prognosis than their older counterparts. Our results are therefore surprisingly different from what the literature suggests. A further study should understand this uncommon finding.