Assessment of chemotherapy on various biochemical markers in breast cancer patients

Chemotherapy is a standard treatment method for the patients with locally advanced breast cancer. Lately, cyclophosphamide (CYP) and doxorubicin (DOX) are used as the major chemotherapeutic agents especially for the treatment of breast cancer. Till date, no serum biomarker has been able to provide an early diagnosis of breast cancer. This study aimed to assess inflammatory, cardiac, renal and hematological markers in 56 breast cancer patients (BCP) before, during and after termination of chemotherapy with CYP and DOX. Blood samples were collected from the patients at the each treatment stages mentioned above. These samples were assessed for interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 10 (IL-10), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase (CK), creatinine, hemoglobin (Hb), leukocyte, platelet and Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase levels either by ELISA or colorimetric methods. The results suggest a significant increase in IL-6 level at all the stages in BCP as compared to control group. On the other hand, IL-10, CK and Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase levels were found to be significantly declined during all the stages. Moreover, the majority of hematological parameters remained unchanged throughout the treatment period with the exception of creatinine and Hb which showed slight modulation in their level at different stages. Based on the results, we conclude that breast cancer and co-treatment with CYP and DOX, interfere arious biological markers, thereby, showing the physiological imbalance.