The Correlation Between Potential "Anti- Cancer" Trace Elements and the Risk of Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study in a Chinese Population

Heng Xue; Rui Qiao; Lailai Yan; Siyu Yang; Yongming Liang; Yaqiong Liu; Qing Xie; Ligang Cui; Bing Cao

doi:10.3389/fonc.2021.646534

The Correlation Between Potential "Anti- Cancer" Trace Elements and the Risk of Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study in a Chinese Population

Front Oncol. 2021 Aug 10:11:646534. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.646534. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Heng Xue¹, Rui Qiao², Lailai Yan^{3

4}, Siyu Yang⁵, Yongming Liang⁶, Yaqiong Liu^{3

4}, Qing Xie^{3

4}, Ligang Cui¹, Bing Cao⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.
² Baotou Medical College, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China.
³ Department of Laboratorial Science and Technology, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Vaccine Research Center, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁵ Tianjin Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Tianjin, China.
⁶ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Faculty of Psychology, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.

Abstract

Backgrounds: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease without clear pathogenesis and effective primary prevention. The "anti-cancer" effects of several trace elements have received increasing attention in recent years. The main purpose of current study is to explore the differences of three potential "anti-cancer" trace elements selenium (Se), molybdenum (Mo), and strontium (Sr) between patients with malignant breast tumors and healthy controls.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study in 45 patients with malignant breast tumors as cases and 95 healthy volunteers as controls from Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China. The serum concentrations of trace elements were evaluated by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

Results: The cases may have a lower Se levels when compared with controls (cases: 106.22 ng/ml, SD: 20.95 ng/ml; controls: 117.02 ng/ml, IQR: 22.79 ng/ml, p = 0.014). High levels of Se were a protective factor from breast cancer after adjusting the potential confounders of age, BMI, smoking, drinking, and menopause status (OR = 0.395, 95% CI, 0.178, 0.877, p = 0.023). The levels of Sr were lower in cases with high histologic grade when compared to low histologic grade (low histologic grade: 49.83 ng/ml, IQR: 41.35-62.60 ng/ml; high histologic grade: 40.19 ng/ml, IQR: 39.24-47.16 ng/ml, p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Our findings herein supported that Se has protective effects to avoid malignant breast tumors and Sr has protective effects to avoid poorly differentiated malignant breast tumors. Exploring "anti-cancer" related trace elements and their associations with breast cancer will assist for the early prevention and intervention for the disease.

Keywords: ICP-MS; anti-cancer; malignant; selenium; strontium.