Comparison of some trace elements concentration in blood, tumor free breast and tumor tissues of women with benign and malignant breast lesions: an Indian study

Abstract

Fifty women residing in and around New Delhi, India and identified to have benign (25 nos.) and malignant (25 nos.) breast lesions were studied for the first time to access the association between environmental exposure to lead and risk of breast cancer and to determine the potential of changes in trace elements concentration as a diagnostic marker and/or its etiological involvement in the disease. Blood, tumor tissue and breast adipose tissue from tumor free area from each patient of the two groups, collected at the time of lumpectomy or mastectomy (only blood sample was collected from disease free control group), were analyzed to determine the concentration of Pb, Zn, Cu, Fe and Ca using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. Blood lead was significantly higher in malignant cases than in those of benign and control (p<0.05 each). Lead level was also higher in tumor tissue when compared with their respective normal tumor free breast tissue, though non-significant, in both benign and malignant cases. Interestingly, Zn, Fe, and Ca levels were higher in blood of malignant cases than in those of their benign counterparts. Furthermore, these metals were also higher in tumor of malignant and benign cases as compared to normal tumor free breast tissue, many of them statistically significant (p<0.05/0.01/0.001). However, Cu level was insignificantly lower in the blood and tumor tissue of malignant cases when compared with their benign counterparts while it was significantly higher (p<0.05) in tumor of benign cases when compared with those of their respective normal tumor free breast tissue. There were statistically significant correlations between lead and trace element levels only in normal tumor free breast tissue of benign and malignant cases (r=0.41-0.73; p<0.05-0.001) but neither in blood nor tumor tissue of the two groups. These results suggest that in the backdrop of existing experimental and epidemiological evidences exposure to lead may be one of the risk factors for breast lesions; though it warrants further investigation. Further, modulation of trace elements level in both benign and malignant breast diseases patients may be of potential to be used as diagnostic marker of the disease process and its possible relationship etiologically.