Study on IL-2 and CA 15-3 level as combined biomarkers in monitoring chemotherapeutic response among invasive breast cancer patients

摘要

In Malaysia, breast cancer is the most frequent type of disease among women. Thisudstudy was designed to determine the clinical usefulness of carbohydrate antigen (CA 15-3) andudinterleukin 2 (IL-2) levels as combined biomarkers in monitoring breast cancer patient’sudresponse to chemotherapy. Ethical approval was obtained to recruit patients with histologicallyudconfirmed invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) attending Oncology Clinic at Advanced Medicaludand Dental Institute. Whole blood was collected from 10 IDC breast cancer patients’ pre andudpost primary chemotherapy. Plasma was separated from the whole blood to determine the CAud15-3 level and IL-2 level using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) pre and posttreatment.udIn addition, the histological findings, tumour stage and other patients’ data wereudobtained from the medical record. Findings showed that IL-2 had borderline significantudchanges between pre- and post-chemotherapy (p = 0.074) whereas for CA 15-3, there wasudinsignificant differences of CA 15-3 level between pre and post-chemotherapy (p > 0.05). Itudwas noted that only CA 15-3 level had significant correlation with tumour size. This studyuddemonstrates that IL-2 level requires further investigation in a larger sample size to correlate itsudpotential use as combined biomarker with CA 15-3 in monitoring response to chemotherapy.