Introduction and aim

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the top three common cancers in women, responsible for nearly one-third of all new cancer diagnoses. Angiogenesis plays a crucial role in BC progression. In this study, we aimed to measure the serum concentrations of eight angiogenic factors in BC patients and healthy controls and to assess their correlation with clinicopathological variables.

Methods

In a case-control study, 62 pathologically confirmed BC patients as well as 54 age-matched controls were recruited. A bead-based immunoassay was used to measure serum levels of VEGF-A, ANG-2, PDGF-AA, PDGF-BB, EGF, TGF-a, HGF, and bFGF.

Results

We observed a significant elevation in serum levels of VEGF-A, EGF, and PDGF-AA in BC patients compared with the controls (P < 0.05). Patients with grade III had higher ANG-2 levels compared with those with grades I (P = 0.007) and II of the disease (P = 0.003). In addition, estrogen-positive and progesterone-positive BC patients had higher levels of TGF-a (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

The significant elevation of VEGF-A, EGF, and PDGF-AA serum levels in BC patients suggests these cytokines might have diagnostic value as potential biomarkers in BC. Further large-scale studies are needed to generalize these results to all BC patients.

中文翻译：

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乳腺癌血管生成因子的定量及其临床病理学关联

简介和目标

乳腺癌（BC）是女性三大常见癌症之一，占所有新诊断癌症的近三分之一。血管生成在 BC 进展中起着至关重要的作用。在这项研究中，我们的目的是测量 BC 患者和健康对照中八种血管生成因子的血清浓度，并评估它们与临床病理变量的相关性。

方法

在一项病例对照研究中，招募了 62 名经病理证实的 BC 患者以及 54 名年龄匹配的对照者。基于微珠的免疫测定用于测量 VEGF-A、ANG-2、PDGF-AA、PDGF-BB、EGF、TGF-a、HGF 和 bFGF 的血清水平。

结果

我们观察到，与对照组相比，BC 患者血清 VEGF-A、EGF 和 PDGF-AA 水平显着升高（P < 0.05）。与疾病I级（ P = 0.007）和II级（ P = 0.003）患者相比，III级患者ANG-2水平较高。此外，雌激素阳性和孕激素阳性的 BC 患者 TGF-a 水平较高（P < 0.05）。

结论

BC 患者中 VEGF-A、EGF 和 PDGF-AA 血清水平显着升高，表明这些细胞因子可能作为 BC 的潜在生物标志物具有诊断价值。需要进一步的大规模研究才能将这些结果推广到所有 BC 患者。