Breast Cancer: Basic and Clinical Research

Background: Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecules (ALCAMs) play an essential role in tumor metastasis and are higher in some patients with breast cancer.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate ALCAM as an early diagnostic biomarker for breast cancer and how it compares with other markers.

Subjects and Methods: One-hundred and sixty-one women were selected for this study. They were divided into three groups: Group 1 consisted of 42 healthy individuals (control) while a patients groups divided into two groups according to tumour grade, Group II, Include 58 breast cancer patient’s grade II and Group III, Include 61 patients with grade III of breast cancer. Tumour markers CEA, CA 15-3 and s ALCAM levels were determined and Group 2 consisted of breast cancer patients.

Results: A highly significant elevation was recorded in s ALCAM, CA 15-3 and CEA. Percent change for grade II and grade III were [sALCAM (90, 127)], [CA15-3 (40, 72)] and [CEA (33, 156)]. Operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the biomarkers ALCAM, CA15-3 and CEA with area under the curve (AUC) of (0.99 & 1.0) (AUC 0.947 & 0.99) and (AUC 0.88 & 0.94) for grade II and grade III respectively the incremental values of AUC were statistically highly significant (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: It could be concluded that serum ALCAM concentration represents a suitable biomarker for Saudi arabian breast carcinoma with high sensitivity and has the potential to be used as a diagnostic tool comparable to CA15-3 and CEA.