Blood endocan as a biomarker for breast cancer recurrence.

BACKGROUND

Endocan was reported to affect breast cancer patients negatively and was able to be detected from patients' blood.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate if the measurement of blood endocan in breast cancer patients with high ESM1 expression could be an effective tool to detect postoperative recurrence compared with existing tumor markers.

METHODS

Blood was collected before and after the tumor resection from the mouse models of breast cancer, and endocan levels were measured while visualizing metastatic recurrence with noninvasive luminescence imaging. In clinical settings, blood was withdrawn from 16 breast cancer patients before and after the tumor resection, and the effect of lumpectomy on blood endocan level was evaluated. Additionally, the blood endocan from 20 patients diagnosed with postoperative recurrence was measured, and their positivity rate for endocan was compared with that for serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3).

RESULTS

Our preclinical and clinical experiments revealed that blood endocan levels reflected tumor burden. Furthermore, over 60% of patients suffering from postoperative recurrence who tested negative for CEA or CA15-3 were positive for endocan.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results support the clinical significance of endocan in breast cancer patients for detecting breast cancer recurrence.