Abstract
Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer resulting in death. Trace elements of Fe, Se and Zn can play a key role in the onset and prevention of breast cancer. Trace elements in the fingernails may be used as bioindicators for breast cancer diagnosis. The purpose of this work is to determine the concentrations of Fe, Se, and Zn in the fingernails of women with breast cancer and healthy women, which used to find the difference and correlation of these elements in the fingernail.
 Methods: This research was approved by the Ethics Committee of Dong Nai General Hospital. The fingernail collected from 29 women with breast cancer and 30 healthy women, who are the same age and living in Dong Nai province, Vietnam. The concentrations of Fe, Se, and Zn in the fingernails were determined using the k0-INAA method. The analytical data were evaluated using some statistical analysis for the correlation of trace elements in the fingernails of both groups.
 Results: As a result, the mean concentrations of Fe, Se and Zn in fingernails of women with breast cancer were 102.87 ug/g, 0.75 ug/g and 65.49 ug/g, respectively, while those of healthy women were 69.74 ug/g, 0.78 ug/g and 107.75 ug/g. The assessment of these elements in fingernails for both two sample groups, including t-test and correlation coefficients, was also carried out in this study. As a result, the significant difference (p < 0.05) was found for the Fe and Zn in fingernails of women with breast cancer, while those of Se was not found. The correlation between Se and Zn was found in both groups. The correlation between Fe and Zn was found in fingernails of healthy women, but it disappears in the women with breast cancer.
 Conclusions: From our finding, it can be concluded that Fe and Zn significantly associated with the risk of breast cancer, while Se is not associated.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer resulting in death
The results showed that the concentration of Fe in the fingernails of women with breast cancer was higher than of those healthy women, while Zn level was at the lower level
The present study k0-INAA method was used to determine the concentrations of Fe, Se, and Zn in fingernail samples of women with breast cancer and healthy women
Summary
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer resulting in death. Trace elements of Fe, Se, and Zn can play a key role in the onset and prevention of breast cancer. The purpose of this work is to determine the concentrations of Fe, Se, and Zn in the fingernails of women with breast cancer and healthy women, which used to find the difference and correlation of these elements in the fingernail. Results: As a result, the mean concentrations of Fe, Se, and Zn in fingernails of women with breast cancer were 102.87 μg/g, 0.75 μg/g and 65.49 μg/g, respectively, while those of healthy women were 69.74 μg/g, 0.78 μg/g and 107.75 μg/g The assessment of these elements in fingernails for both two sample groups, including t-test and correlation coefficients, was carried out in this study. The trace elements are accumulated in human body tissues like hair and nails that have distinct advantages of the application as biomarkers They are recognized as biological tools for disease diagnosis. A large amount of evidence suggested that overload or deficiency of certain heavy metals linked with the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer and other ones [1,2]
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