Serum Soluble Interleukin-2 Receptor Levels in Patients with Breast Cancer

• Published in: Breast cancer (Tokyo, Japan) Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 25 - 28
• Main Authors: Murakami, S, Hirayama, R, Satomi, A, Okubo, K, Matsuki, M, Sakata, H, Tsuji, Y
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan 25.03.1997
• ISSN: 1340-6868; 1880-4233
• DOI: 10.1007/BF02967051

Preoperative levels of serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor (1L-2R) were examined in 37 patients with breast cancer. We investigated the correlations of serum soluble IL-2R levels with various factors such as stage grouping, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, tumor size, histophthological type, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR) and CA 15-3. Serum soluble 1L-2R levels were measured with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Levels of serum soluble 1L-2R in the patients with stage III and IV breast cancer were significantly higher than those in the normal controls, and patients with stage I and II breast cancer. Preoperative levels of serum soluble IL-2R in patients with T3 and T4 were also significantly higher than those in patients with T1 and T2. Serum levels of IL-2R in patients with distant metastasis were also significantly higher than those in patients without distant metastasis. Moreover, serum levels of soluble IL-2R in patients with higher CA 15-3 were significantly higher than those in patients with normal CA 15-3 levels. We conclude that preoperative serum soluble IL-2R levels in patients with breast cancer may be a valuable parameter, especially in evaluating whether they have distant metastasis or not.