Obesity and adipocytokines in breast cancer and benign breast disease

There is a relationship between obesity and the development of breast cancer; adipocytokines are among the mechanisms related.

To describe the impact of obesity in leptin, adiponectin, resistin and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) serum levels in women with breast cancer (BC) and benign breast disease (BBD).

A cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of 54 individuals divided into two groups: BC (n = 27) and BBD (n = 27). Serum levels of leptin, adiponectin, resistin and TNF-alpha were determined. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Statistical analysis included mean, standard deviation, median and interquartile range; the differences between groups were determined by Student´s t test, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskall Wallis test to identify differences between the groups.

We didn’t find any significant differences related to anthropometric characteristics between BC and BBD groups, or to leptin, adiponectin, resistin and TNF-alpha serum levels (p = NS). We found higher leptin serum levels in obese women with BBD compared with non-obese women with BC (med 22.26 versus 4.34 ng/mL; p = 0.028). Adiponectin serum levels in non-obese women from the BC group were higher than serum levels found in non-obese women with BBD (med 7.10 versus 2.22 ng/mL; p = 0.038)

We found higher leptin serum levels and lower adiponectin serum levels in BBD women than BC women in this population with high frequency of obesity.