Immunological and Bacteriological Assessment of Women with Breast Cancer in Benin, Nigeria

Abstract

Neutrophils and lymphocytes are important cells involved in cellular immune response. Pre‐treatment neutrophil‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a biomarker which can be used to predict disease progression, mortality and morbidity in breast cancer patients. Fungating breast lesions found in advanced stages of breast cancer patients are usually infected with opportunistic mixed bacteria flora and treatment with systemic antibiotics is often geared at alleviating symptoms and optimizing the quality of life of the patients.A total of 60 participants (30 patients and 30 apparently healthy women as controls) were involved in this study. Full blood count analysis was done using Sysmex KX‐21N Automated Hematology Analyzer. Swab samples were also collected from the breast wounds. These were cultured and isolated using appropriate media and standard microbiological techniques. Antibiotic susceptibility test was determined using commonly used antibiotics.It was observed that there is a preponderance of breast cancer within the study area. Majority of the subjects presented at the advanced stages (stage 3 and 4) and they had high values of neutrophil‐lymphocyte ratio. The mean value of the neutrophil‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) obtained for the women with breast cancer (3.50±2.7 x103/μl) was found to be higher than the ratio of the control group (2.1±0.56 x103/μl). Using 2.3 as the cut‐off marker for NLR, 36.7 % of the subjects had NLR less than 2.3 while 63.3 % were higher or equal to 2.3; which were found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05). It showed that majority (40%) of the cancer subjects presented at stage 4 and out of which 30% had fugitive breast lesions. The predominant bacteria isolated from the lesions were Escherichia coli (35.7 %), Proteus mirabilis (28.6 %), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (21.4 %) and Staphylococcus aureus (14.3 %). All the bacterial isolates showed high susceptibility to pefloxacin and ceftriaxone (78.50 %) respectively and exhibited very low susceptibility to amoxicillin (7 %) and ampiclox (0 %).It is pertinent to increase public awareness of breast cancer, to encourage women to be involved in routine medical examination and to educate women with breast cancer to present early to the hospitals for adequate treatment, as these will help to manage the progression of the disease and also reduce mortality and morbidity. Appropriate use of antibiotics is also very important.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.