Comparative Trace Elemental Analysis in Cancerous and Noncancerous Animal Tissues Using Logistic Regression

Essential metals are important in the normal functioning of the body. However, tissues or organs can be affected when there are inappropriate concentrations of these elements. In the literature, there are works indicating that essential elements may be related to the emergence of neoplasms. Therefore, it is important to determine the metal species in biological samples in order to relate the concentration of these species to the emergence of neoplasms. This study reports the application of the Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (FAAS) for the quantification of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn in 31 samples of canine tissue (11 of mammary glands, 4 of pancreas, 3 of skin and 13 of testicles) with and without neoplasms, using alkaline solubilization as sample preparation method. The concentration of these metals was used as co-variables for the construction of models of logistic regression. The concentration of Zn in breast and Fe in pancreas was significant (p < 0.05) in the logistic models. The findings of this study describe that the elements Fe and Zn play a major role in the carcinomas development, since high levels of these metals were observed in neoplastic tissues.