Evaluation of diagnostic and predictive value of serum adipokines: Leptin, resistin and visfatin in postmenopausal breast cancer

Obesity is a well-known risk factor for cancer. The associations of obesity with postmenopausal breast cancer (PBC) have been previously proven in clinical studies. The mechanisms underlying these associations remain unexplained completely, however, adipose tissue as an endocrine organ producing adipokines may interfere with cancer development. The aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic and predictive value of serum levels of leptin, resistin and visfatin with inflammatory and tumour markers in relation to anthropometrics, clinicopathological features of PBC. This study included 298 postmenopausal Saudi females categorised into three groups. One hundred and ten BC patients with age matched, 89 healthy control (HC) and 99 females with benign breast lesion (BBL). For all subjects CA15-3, hsCRP, resistin, visfatin and leptin were measured by ELISA. Serum levels of leptin, resistin and visfatin were significantly higher in BC compared to BBL and HC groups (p < 0.05). Their levels were also significantly higher in advanced TNM stage, tumour size, LN invasion, histological grade and negative ER or PR cases. The most significant predictor of leptin level was ER (p < 0.05). While for resistin and visfatin level the most significant independent predictor was LN invasion. ROC analysis for serum leptin revealed AUC = 0.795; 95% CI, 0.724-0.866. Resistin showed AUC = 0.875; 95% CI, 0.821-0.928. Meanwhile, visfatin greater than 12.2 ng/mL demonstrated a sensitivity and specificity of 97.6% and 92.6%, respectively and AUC = 0.724; 95% CI, 0.643-0.804. In conclusion serum leptin, resistin, and visfatin levels could be considered of potential diagnostic value for PBC and they would be independent predictors of LN invasion and ER negative PBC cases. (C) 2015 Asia Oceania Association for the Study of Obesity. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.