Abstract
BackgroundRetinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) is a recently identified adipokine that is elevated in patients with obesity or type 2 diabetes. A growing body of research has shown that RBP4 is associated with several types of cancer. However, no studies have investigated the relationship between serum RBP4 levels and breast cancer risk. We performed a case-control study to evaluate the association between serum RBP4 levels and the risk of breast cancer.MethodsFrom August 2012 to December 2013, four-hundred subjects including 200 patients diagnosed with primary breast cancer and 200 matched healthy women were consecutively enrolled from Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University Medical College. Blood samples were collected from healthy controls and breast cancer patients before commencement of treatment. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to evaluate the serum RBP4 levels in separated serum samples. Meanwhile, the characteristics of breast cancer cases and controls were collected from medical records and pathological data.ResultsThe serum levels of RBP4 were significantly higher in patients with breast cancer than that in the healthy control group (33.77±9.92 vs. 28.77±6.47μg/ml, P < 0.05). Compared to the subjects in the lowest quartile of serum RBP4 level, the adjusted ORs (95% CIs) is 2.16(1.01–4.61) and 2.07 (1.07–4.00) for women in the second and highest RBP4 tertile, respectively. For breast cancer patients, patients with PR or ER negative displayed significantly higher serum RBP4 levels than those with PR or ER positive.ConclusionOur results for the first time suggested serum RBP4 levels could be associated with the risk of breast cancer. However, further prospective studies are essential to confirm these observed results.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy tumor and is the main cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide, with an estimated 1.67 million new cases in 2012 (25 percent of the total cases of cancers)[1]
Our results for the first time suggested serum Retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) levels could be associated with the risk of breast cancer
Our results suggested that serum RBP4 levels are positively correlated with BMI and TG among healthy control group, serum RBP4 concentrations were positively correlated with BMI among patients with breast cancer
Summary
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy tumor and is the main cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide, with an estimated 1.67 million new cases in 2012 (25 percent of the total cases of cancers)[1]. Adipose tissue is an energy reservoir pool, and a major endocrine function releasing multiple adipokines including leptin, adiponectin, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6 and resistin[6], these adipokines contribute to the pathogenesis of obesity-linked complications such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and breast cancer[7,8,9,10]. Retinol binding-protein 4 (RBP4) is a recently identified adipokine, many studies have declared the relationship between the increased circulating RBP4 and different aspects of obesity[11,12,13,14]. No studies have investigated the relationship between serum RBP4 levels and breast cancer risk. We performed a case-control study to evaluate the association between serum RBP4 levels and the risk of breast cancer
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