Effect of chemotherapy on fatigue and presence of TNF- in breast cancer patients.

Abstract

e20601 Background: Chemoterapy induced fatigue (CRF) is a common complain and few studies assessed so far the role of inflammatory biomarkers as predictors of CRF. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of our study is to evaluate potential biomarkers of CRF in breast cancer (BC) patients receiving adjuvant Chemotherapy (CHT). Methods: Thirty-seven localized BC patients (clinical stages I-III) consecutively treated at the oncology service of Faculdade de Medicina da Fundação ABC were enrolled in this study. All patients received doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide based chemotherapy. Before the beginning of chemotherapy and before the second cycle, all patients answered the BFI (Brief Fatigue Inventory) questionnaire. The following inflammatory markers were collected: C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin 6 (IL-6). We correlated these inflammatory markers with BFI scores of each patient before and after cycle 1 and cycle 2 of chemotherapy. Results: The mean values of the inflammatory markers were: CRP 4.58 mg/dL (IC 95% 3.17-5.90), TNF-α 11 mg/dL ( IC 95% 8.84-13.79) and IL-6 3.74 (IC 95% 1.93-5.54). We observed a positive correlation between the BFI scores and TNF-α (p=0.0201). Conclusions: TNF-α may represent a potential CRF biomarker. Future studies may elucidate the potential usefulness of TNF-α for monitoring the anti-fatigue effects of new drugs for the treatment of CRF.