CD14 macrophage and IL-10 levels in the peripheral blood of breast cancer patients and their diagnostic value*

Abstract

Abstract Objective To explore the correlation between macrophages and interleukin-10 (IL-10 in the peripheral blood of breast cancer (BC) patients and the diagnostic value of joint detection. Methods BC patients (n = 50) and healthy controls (n = 40) were prospectively recruited. The percentage of circulating cluster of differentiation 14 (CD 14) macrophage cells was analyzed by flow cytometry, and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect IL-10 expression levels. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to verify the diagnostic value of the models based on the expression of CD14 macrophage cell populations and IL-10. In addition, the association between model expression and clinicopathological characteristics was investigated. Another 30 patients with BC and 30 with benign breast disease were selected to validate the IL-10 and CD14 macrophage joint detection model using the same method. Results CD14 macrophage and IL-10 expression levels in BC patients were higher than those in healthy controls (P < 0.05). The ROC curve showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of CD14+ macrophages combined with IL-10 was 0.830, the sensitivity was 72.0%, and the specificity was 87.5%. Its diagnostic efficiency was better than all other single and joint detections. Correlation analysis of clinicopathological features showed that IL-10 and CD14+ macrophage joint detection was significantly correlated with tumor size, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, and lymph node, estrogen receptor (ER), and Ki-67 expression (P < 0.05). The validation analysis results were consistent with the test results. Conclusion Peripheral blood macrophages can be an independent diagnostic marker for BC. Joint detection of CD14- macrophages and IL-10 suggests poor prognosis, which has unlimited potential to guide BC development and provides a new theory for studying tumor-associated macrophages in BC.