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. 2022 Jul 7:12:891619.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.891619. eCollection 2022.

Circulating Carnitine Levels and Breast Cancer: A Matched Retrospective Case-Control Study

Jiayi Zhang  1 , Gang Wu  2 , Hailong Zhu  2 , Fengyuan Yang  2 , Shuman Yang  3 , Ann M Vuong  4 , Jincheng Li  2 , Demiao Zhu  2 , Yiyan Sun  2 , Wei Tao  2
Affiliations

Circulating Carnitine Levels and Breast Cancer: A Matched Retrospective Case-Control Study

Jiayi Zhang et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Epidemiological studies investigating the association between carnitine and breast cancer are scarce.

Materials and methods: This 1:1 age-matched retrospective case-control study identified 991 female breast cancer cases and 991 female controls without breast cancer using pathological testing. We used targeted metabolomics technology to measure 16 types of whole blood carnitine compounds, such as free carnitine (C0) and octadecanoylcarnitine (C18).

Results: The average age for cases and controls was approximately 50 ± 8.7 years. After adjusting for covariates, each standard deviation (SD) increase in malonylcarnitine (C3DC; OR 0.91; 95% CI 0.83-1.00), decenoylcarnitine (C10:1; OR 0.87; 95% CI 0.79-0.96), and decadienoylcarnitine (C10:2; OR 0.90; 95% CI 0.82-0.99) level was associated with decreased odds of breast cancer. However, higher butyrylcarnitine (C4) levels were associated with increased odds of breast cancer (OR 1.12; 95% CI 1.02-1.23). No statistically significant relationship was noted between other carnitine compounds and breast cancer. The false discovery rates for C3DC, C4, C10:1 and C10:2 were 0.172, 0.120, 0.064 and 0.139, respectively.

Conclusions: Higher levels of C3DC, C10:1, and C10:2 were protective factors for breast cancer, whereas increased C4 levels were a risk factor for the disease.

Keywords: breast cancer; carnitine; metabolites; risk assessment; women.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Association between malonylcarnitine (C3DC; per 1-SD increase) and breast cancer by pathological stage of diagnosis, tumor grade, and surrogate subtype. aAll models were adjusted for age, body mass index, age at menarche, hypertension diagnosis, type 2 diabetes diagnosis, history of cancer, smoking status, alcohol consumption, family history of cancer, postmenopausal status, and parity. Luminal B-like included HER2-positive and negative. Bold values are statistically significant at α = 0.05.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Association between butyrylcarnitine (C4; per 1-SD increase) and breast cancer by pathological stage of diagnosis, tumor grade, and surrogate subtype. aAll models were adjusted for age, body mass index, age at menarche, hypertension diagnosis, type 2 diabetes diagnosis, history of cancer, smoking status, alcohol consumption, family history of cancer, postmenopausal status, and parity. Luminal B-like included HER2-positive and negative. Bold values are statistically significant at α = 0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Association between decenoylcarnitine (C10:1; per 1-SD increase) and breast cancer by pathological stage of diagnosis, tumor grade, and surrogate subtype. aAll models were adjusted for age, body mass index, age at menarche, hypertension diagnosis, type 2 diabetes diagnosis, history of cancer, smoking status, alcohol consumption, family history of cancer, postmenopausal status, and parity. Luminal B-like included HER2-positive and negative. Bold values are statistically significant at α = 0.05.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Association between decadienoylcarnitine (C10:2; per 1-SD increase) and breast cancer by pathological stage of diagnosis, tumor grade, and surrogate subtype. aAll models were adjusted for age, body mass index, age at menarche, hypertension diagnosis, type 2 diabetes diagnosis, history of cancer, smoking status, alcohol consumption, family history of cancer, postmenopausal status, and parity. Luminal B-like included HER2-positive and negative. Bold values are statistically significant at α = 0.05.
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