BACKGROUND Neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves surgical options and prognosis in patients with operable breast cancer. Predictive biomarkers are needed to choose the most effective therapy and to avoid unnecessary toxicity. PATIENTS AND METHODS We analyzed the courses of apoptosis-related serum biomarkers macrophage migration-inhibitory factor (MIF), soluble cell death receptor sFAS, soluble in...

Since renal failure causes decrease in tumor marker excretion, use of these markers in cancer care and treatment in patients with renal insufficiency or hemodialysis is controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate differences of serum levels of tumor markers CA15-3, AFP, CA19-9 and CEA in patients with impaired renal function. A total of 100 patients referred to the Tabriz Immam Reza...

Midkine, a heparin-binding growth factor, is up-regulated in many types of cancer. The aim of this study was to measure plasma midkine levels in patients with breast cancer and to assess its clinical significance. We examined plasma midkine levels in 95 healthy volunteers, 11 patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), 111 patients with primary invasive breast cancer without distant metastas...

Purpose:We examined whether pretreatment levels of angiogenesisor hypoxia-related proteins and their changes after one cycle of first-line bevacizumab-based therapy were associated with response, PFS, or OS in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Experimental Design:We included 181 patients enrolled in the phase II ATX trial evaluating first-line paclitaxel and bevacizumab without or with ca...

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is promising as tumor-specific marker for progression surveillance in metastatic cancer. Our aim was to investigate the diagnostic power of ctDNA level disease breast cancer and propose rationally selected thresholds with clinical validity. This prospective single-center observational study conducted from July 1, 2019 December 2021, recruited 136 subjects sequencin...

Bone scan index (BSI) has been used to quantify the spread of bone metastasis and be a prognostic indicator in prostate cancer with bone metastases. However, the utility of BSI in breast cancer patients with bone metastasis has not been yet established. We retrospectively reviewed 57 female breast cancer patients with osteoblastic/lytic combined type bone metastases and treated with zoledronic ...