Anti-Heat Shock Protein-27 Antibody Levels in Women with Breast Cancer: Association with Disease Complications and Two-Year Disease-Free Survival

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Breast cancer is a major healthcare problem in women. There are many reports about up-regulation of Hsp27 in cancer tissues but less is known about the potential relationship between Hsp27 antibody levels and breast cancer complications. We here investigated concentrations of serum Hsp27 antigen and antibodies in subjects with and without breast cancer and assessed potential associations with two-year disease-free survival, histological grade and number of lymph nodes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Specifically, serum Hsp27 antigen and antibody levels from 97 patients with breast cancer, and 65 healthy controls were determined by enzyme-linkedimmunosorbent assays (ELISAs). RESULTS: Serum Hsp27 and antibody levels were significantly (p<0.001) higher in patients with breast cancer compared to the control group, but no relationship were found with two-year disease free survival, histological grade or number of lymph nodes (p> 0.6, 0.2 and 0.9 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated levels of Hsp27 antibody occur with women with breast cancer but do not appear to be associated with the presence of disease clinical complications.