Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 serum levels in patients with breast cancer

The chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 is thought to be involved in breast carcinogenesis. We evaluated MCP-1 serum levels in patients with breast cancer (n = 135), ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) I-III (n = 30), benign breast lesions (n = 143) and in healthy women (n = 27). We determined the value of MCP-1 serum levels as a differentiation marker between malignant, preinvasive and benign breast diseases and as a predictive marker for the biological phenotype of breast carcinoma. Median (range) MCP-1 serum levels in patients with breast cancer, DCIS I-III, benign breast lesions and healthy women were 200 (57-692) pg/ml, 194 (58-525) pg/ml, 174 (39-529) pg/ml and 175 (67-425) pg/ml, respectively. No differences were ascertained between the patient groups. In patients with breast cancer, increased MCP-1 serum levels were correlated with advanced tumor stage (p = 0.04) and lymph node involvement (p = 0.04). We were not able to establish MCP-1 as a differentiation marker between malignant and benign breast diseases. Our data might indicate that MCP-1 influences breast carcinogenesis by facilitating tumor growth and metastatic spread, thus altering the biological phenotype of the disease.