Plasma Chemokine CCL2 and Its Receptor CCR2 Concentrations as Diagnostic Biomarkers for Breast Cancer Patients

• Main Authors: Emilia Lubowicka, Andrzej Przylipiak, Monika Zajkowska, Barbara Maria Piskór, Paweł Malinowski, Wojciech Fiedorowicz, Sławomir Ławicki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2018-01-01
• Series: BioMed Research International
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/2124390
• ISSN: 2314-6133; 2314-6141

The aim of this study was to investigate plasma levels and applicability of CCL2, CCR2, and tumor marker CA 15-3 in breast cancer (BC) patients and in relation to the control groups: patients with benign breast tumor and healthy subjects. Plasma levels of tested parameters were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and CA 15-3 by Chemiluminescent Microparticle Immunoassay (CMIA). The median levels of CCL2 in entire group of BC were significantly higher compared to the control groups, similarly as median levels of CA 15-3. CCR2 is a negative marker whose levels were significantly lower in BC group compared to healthy women. The concentration of CCL2 in BC increases with advancing tumor stage, while a median level of CCR2 decreases with advancing stage. CCL2 showed the highest value of sensitivity (SE) (64.95%) in entire BC group and also in early stages of disease. The highest specificity (SP) was obtained by CA 15-3 (85.71%). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of CCR2 (0.7304) was the largest of all the tested parameters (slightly lower than CA 15-3) in the entire BC group, but a maximum range was obtained for the combination of all tested parameters with CA 15-3 (0.8271). In early stages of BC the highest AUC of all tested parameters was observed in CCL2 or CCR2 (stage I: 0.6604 and 0.6564; respectively; stage II: 0.7768, respectively, for CCR2). The findings of this study suggest that there may be applicability of CCL2, CCR2 in diagnosis of BC patients, particularly in conjunction with CA 15-3.