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Published on: October 2, 2014
The Clinical Value of Hepcidin in Breast Cancer and Its Bone Metastasis
Xiaonan Shao1, Fei Cao2, Min Tao3
1Department of Nuclear Medicine, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Purpose:
We explored the role of hepcidin in the progression of breast cancer.
Methods:
A retrospective analysis of 25 breast cancer patients with bone metastases, 30 breast cancer patients without bone metastases, and 30 patients with breast hyperplasia was conducted to compare the differences in Hb, hepcidin, BMP6, IL-6, and sTfR among the three groups and explore the correlation of Hepcidin with BMP6 IL-6, Hb and sTfR. In addition, ROC analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of hepcidin, BMP6 and IL-6 in breast cancer and its bone metastasis, while multivariate Logistic regression analysis was conducted to compare various indicators in breast cancer and its bone metastasis.
Results:
The incidence of anemia was significantly different among three groups; hepcidin, BMP6, IL-6, sTfR, and Hb were also significantly different. Hepcidin level has a significant correlation with IL-6 and Hb levels in breast cancer patients with bone metastasis. Hepcidin had a higher diagnostic value for both breast cancer and breast cancer with bone metastasis than both BMP6 and IL-6. Hepcidin was an independent risk factor for breast cancer and its bone metastasis.
Conclusion:
Hepcidin can very well be utilized as a potential prognostic marker to follow patients with breast cancer metastatic to bone.

