How Does Treatment of Breast Cancer Affect Serum Lipid Composition?

By: Lauren Velentzas
Posted: Wednesday, July 5, 2023

With the steady improvement of breast cancer treatment and survivorship rates, there is an ever-increasing awareness of, and subsequent research into, the effects of treatment on patients’ lives after cancer. Professor Ewa Stominska, of the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland, and colleagues found that the serum fatty acid profiles of patients who underwent resection of breast cancer were significantly higher than those before treatment and of controls, and they remained higher than average for up to 12 months after surgery. The researchers’ findings, which were published in BMC Cancer, suggest that additional studies on the link between altered fatty acid profiles and survival may help to shed light on dietary recommendations for patients after surgery for breast cancer.

The fatty acid levels of 28 women with preoperative breast cancer and an average age of 56 ± 11 years were determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and compared with those of a control group of women aged 44 ± 10 years. Post-treatment follow-up for 27 of the patients was 12 months, and for 19 patients, it was 24 months. Most patients had estrogen receptor–positive, progesterone receptor–positive, HER2-negative tumors. Eight patients received neoadjuvant radiotherapy, which lasted up to 6 months after surgery. Five patients received paclitaxel/carboplatin neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and two patients with HER2-positive disease received tamoxifen/trastuzumab treatment, which lasted up to 5 years after surgery.

The patients with breast cancer displayed significantly elevated triacylglycerol concentrations compared with the control group at both 12 and 24 months, as well as lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations in the blood than the control group. The greatest differences were found for levels of branched-chain, odd-chain, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, with no significant changes from 12 months to 24 months. The difference in fatty acid profiles between the control group and patients with breast cancer after tumor resection was more pronounced than between the controls and patients after resection.

Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit bmccancer.biomedcentral.com.

BMC Cancer

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