Harmful effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy monitoring by DSC on breast cancer patients’ blood plasma

• Published in: Journal of thermal analysis and calorimetry 2016-10, Vol.126 (1), p.55-59
• Main Authors: Ferencz, A., Zapf, I., Lőrinczy, D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjuvant chemotherapy; Analytical Chemistry; Blood plasma; Breast cancer; Calorimetry; Cancer metastasis; Cancer patients; Cancer research; Cancer therapies; Care and treatment; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemotherapy; Denaturation; Differential scanning calorimetry; Inorganic Chemistry; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Medical schools; Metastasis; Physical Chemistry; Plasma; Polymer Sciences; Protein denaturation; Tumors; Women's health
• ISSN: 1388-6150; 1588-2926
• DOI: 10.1007/s10973-016-5291-3

Preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy is currently a common approach for treatment of breast cancer patients. These anticancer drugs are harmful, but essential in the fight against tumor cells. The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the thermal changes of blood plasma with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method between neoadjuvant chemotherapy received and not received breast cancer patients. The study included 11 adult breast cancer women who were grouped according to TNM stage and perioperative treatments. Patients who had ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), as a local tumor without any metastases did not receive any neoadjuvant chemotherapy ( n  = 3). Patients with invasive lobular carcinoma with local metastases received neoadjuvant chemotherapy preoperatively ( n  = 8). Peripheral blood samples were collected from the patients before the operation and from healthy female controls ( n  = 5) ranging from 26 to 60 years old. Denaturation of plasma components was detected in SETARAM Micro DSC-II calorimeter. Our results showed in control group two main T m s (~56 and 63 °C as averages) with Δ H  ~ 1.16 J g −1 . In DCIS samples three T m s (~55.5; 60.6 and 65.5 °C) with Δ H  ~ 1.01 J g −1 , while in group with neoadjuvant chemotherapy four T m s (56.3; 60.9; 66.3 and 74.4 °C) with Δ H  = 1.07 J g −1 were observed in average. These measurements demonstrated that neoadjuvant chemotherapy aggravates the thermodynamic changes in the blood plasma samples of invasive breast cancer patients.