shyli

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Background: Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women worldwide. Apart from the available procedures of diagnosis for breast cancer identification of an ideal biomarker may help in reducing the incidence of breast cancer. The study was aimed to estimate and compare the sialic acid levels in serum of breast cancer patients and healthy individuals to elucidate the importance of it as a potential biomarker in breast cancer.
Materials and Methods: The study was carried out from February 2012 to September 2012 in cancer block St.Anns general and cancer hospital, Kazipet, Warangal, India. A total of 80 members were enrolled in the study out of which 55 were breast cancer patients and 25 were healthy individuals from whom the required data and informed consent was obtained, and then serum was analyzed using diphenylamine method and spectrophotometry.
Results: Serum sialic acid levels of healthy subjects were compared with that of the breast cancer patients and a large difference was found which represents very higher serum sialic acid levels of breast cancer patients and very lower levels in healthy subjects in accordance with the normal range i.e., 15.4 mg/dl. Out of 55 breast cancer patients established breast cancer patients [32(60%)] have shown larger serum sialic acid values than newly diagnosed breast cancer patients [23(40%)]. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software and the P-value was found to be <0.0001 which is significant.
Conclusion: At present, as there is no single treatment known to bring a definite cure for breast cancer, one of the possible solutions for combating breast cancer is through identification of reliable biomarkers that can be effectively used for early detection, prognosis ...

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...ular functions, such as transport of positively charged compounds, cell-to-cell repulsion, influencing conformation of glycoproteins on cell membranes, and even masking antigenic determinants on receptor molecules. Sialic acid should be focused as a tumor marker from the perspective of aberrant glycosylation in cancer cell membranes resulting in activation of new glycosyl transferases that are characteristic of tumor cells, and the role played by sialic acid in tumor cell metastasis including increased capacity to adhere to vascular endothelium, and decreased capacity of cancer cells to be destroyed by host defense mechanisms. The high sensitivity of sialic acid as a tumor marker has been reported in a variety of cancerous conditions.Sialic acid is analyzed by a variety of assay methods like diphenylamine method, winzler method, periodate-thiobarbituric acid method.

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