Serum concentration of selected macro- and microelements and their correlation with the risk of breast and ovarian cancer among BRCA1 mutation carriers

The study was conducted to determine the correlations between serum concentration of selected macroand microelements, namely: magnesium (Mg), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), calcium (Ca), cadmium (Cd) chromium (Cr) and selenium (Se) with increased or decreased predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer. The subjects selected for the trial were Polish women, positive for at least one of three founder mutations in BRCA1 gene dominating in Poland (5382insC, C61G, 4153delA). Persons with detected tumor were considered as cases and the others were considered as controls. One case and two controls were paired regarding many criteria (e.g. age, family cancer history, cigarettes smoking) to achieve the maximum of similarity between them. All the elements were quantitatively measured simultaneously in diluted serum samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) using mass spectrometer (Elan DRC-e, PerkinElmer) in standard mode (Mg, Cu, Zn) and in DRC mode (As, Ca, Cd, Cr) with methane as a reaction gas, for removing polyatomic interferences in measurement.