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INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer (BC), a heterogeneous disease, is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) levels have been persistently reported to be elevated in BC patients. In the current study, we evaluated the correlation between the cfDNA levels in patients with BC and its subtypes. METHODS: We recruited newly diagnosed, histopathologically confirmed BC patients aged >18 years (N=39), who did not have any previous malignancy, from the Department of Surgical Oncology, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Patna, Bihar, India. A total of 6 ml of venous blood was collected from each subject; of this, 1 ml was subjected to complete blood count (CBC), and 4 ml was transferred to a clot-activated collection vial for plasma separation and the cfDNA isolation thereof. In addition to the basic demographic history of each patient, the information on the cancer subtype was as also recorded from the medical records of each patient. All the data were analysed by GraphPad Prism Version 8 (Insightful Science, LLC, San Diego, California, United States). One-way ANOVA was used to test the difference between more than two groups. Pearson correlation was also estimated between cfDNA levels and various CBC indices. A two-tailed p-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The mean age of included patients was 48.6±8.20 years. The mean levels of cfDNA were 2.81±2.39 ng/µL. The mean counts of various blood cell types and other indices of CBC were in the normal range. Compared to BC patients with estrogen receptors (ER+), the cfDNA levels were significantly higher in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2+) and triple-negative BC (TNBC) (p<0.05). Conclusion: The elevated levels of cfDNA in patients with BC can be a prognostic marker for the disease subtype. However, more replicative studies are warranted to substantiate our findings.
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INTRODUCTION: The first trimester of pregnancy is marked by several important disrupting changes as a result of complex biological upshot of events required for the development of the fetus. These changes in the biological events result in changes in the maternal serum biomarkers that are associated with fetal growth. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the correlation between the maternal blood biochemical determinants such as pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) and alpha fetoprotein (AFP) with ultrasound scans during early pregnancy in the first trimester. METHODS: The study included 139 women whose fetus was alive between 11±1 weeks of gestation. The risk of fetal chromosomal abnormalities at first trimester was analyzed by the VeriSeq NIPT Solution v2 platform (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA) for noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) assay. The PAPP-A and AFP levels were evaluated by chemiluminescent immunoassays. The levels of PAPP-A and AFP were correlated with the fetal heart rate (HR), crown rump length (CRL), and nuchal translucency (NT) by Pearson's correlation analysis. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 28.35±3.87 years (minimum=21, maximum=35). The mean AFP and PAPP-A levels in the maternal plasma were 14.76±1.04 ng/mL and 4.37±0.86 mIU/ml respectively. The mean FHR, CRL, and NT were 138±7.62 bpm, 59±3.24 mm, and 2.3±0.61 mm respectively. PAPP-A and AFP significantly (p<0.05) correlated with fetal HR, CRL, and NT at 11±1 weeks of gestation. The mean ratio of AFP:PAPP-A in low-risk pregnancies was 3.37. CONCLUSIONS: The maternal serum biochemical attributes correlated well with the fetal ultrasound scans. The findings of the present study can prove to be clinically useful for clinical research, obstetrics, and gynaecology, especially for examinations of first-trimester pregnancies.
