A bead-based multiplexed immunoassay to evaluate breast cancer biomarkers for early detection in pre-diagnostic serum

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 13; no. 10; pp. 13587 - 13604
• Main Authors: Opstal-van Winden, Annemieke W J, Rodenburg, Wendy, Pennings, Jeroen L A, van Oostrom, Conny T M, Beijnen, Jos H, Peeters, Petra H M, van Gils, Carla H, de Vries, Annemieke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 22.10.2012; Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
• Subjects: Aged; Antigens; Antigens, Neoplasm - blood; Asymptomatic; Biomarkers; Biomarkers, Tumor - blood; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - blood; Breast Neoplasms - diagnosis; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Carcinoembryonic Antigen - blood; Case-Control Studies; Cohort Studies; Colorectal cancer; Demography; detection; Electronic mail systems; Female; Fetal Proteins - blood; Haptoglobins - analysis; Humans; Immunoassay; Mammography; Medical screening; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Osteopontin - blood; Ovarian cancer; pre-diagnostic; Primary care; Principal Component Analysis; Prolactin - blood; Prospective Studies; Public health; serum; Tumors; Womens health; Netherlands
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms131013587

This study investigates whether a set of ten potential breast cancer serum biomarkers and cancer antigens (osteopontin (OPN), haptoglobin, cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cancer antigen 125 (CA-125), prolactin, cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), α-fetoprotein (AFP), leptin and migration inhibitory factor (MIF)) can predict early stage breast cancer in samples collected before clinical diagnosis (phase III samples). We performed a nested case-control study within the Prospect-EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition) cohort. We examined to what extent the biomarker panel could discriminate between 68 women diagnosed with breast cancer up to three years after enrollment and 68 matched healthy controls (all 56-64 years at baseline). Using a quantitative bead-based multiplexed assay, we determined protein concentrations in serum samples collected at enrollment. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Random Forest (RF) analysis revealed that on the basis of all ten proteins, early cases could not be separated from controls. When we combined serum protein concentrations and subject characteristics related to breast cancer risk in the RF analysis, this did not result in classification accuracy scores that could correctly classify the samples (sensitivity: 50%, specificity: 50%). Our findings indicate that this panel of selected tumor markers cannot be used for diagnosis of early breast cancer.