Diala , Jour , Volume , 39 , 2009 95 Study Of Total Protein And Protein Profile In Patients With ( Breast , Ovary and Uterus ) Cancer

serum levels of total protein and protein profile were estimated in three groups of cancer patients : 17 patients with breast cancer , 13 patients with ovary cancer and 17 patients with uterus cancer , 7 pregnant women as pathological controls and 9 normal subjects. The results indicated the presence of significant decrease (P<0.05) in albumin concentration in uterus cancer patients and in pregnant women and non significant difference (p>0.05) in breast and ovary cancer patients as compared to normal subjects, also a non significant difference (p>0.05) in total protein and globulin concentrations in all patients groups and pregnant women as compared to normal subjects. Introduction : More than 40% of female malignancies are gynecological cancers (1) . Gynecological cancer is one of the most serious public health problems in the world with the main gynecological cancers, cervical, breast and ovarian, causing morbidity with severe suffering anda high mortality (2) . A cancerous tumor that begins in a woman’s ovaries is Diala , Jour , Volume , 39 , 2009 96 called ovarian cancer. There are several types of ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer that begins on the surface of the ovary (epithelial carcinoma) is the most common type. Ovarian cysts and tumors that are not cancerous can , also commonly form on the ovaries ( ( 3 ) . Uterine cancer is the most ( common gynecological cancer (2) . Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer and the most common cause of cancer-related mortality among women worldwide ( 4 ) . Proteins are substances made up of two smaller building blocks called amino acids (5) . The major site of synthesis of the plasma proteins is the liver (6) . Total protein level depends on the balance between their synthesis and their catabolism or loss from body (7) . A total plasma protein test measures total amount of protein in blood plasma as well as the amounts of albumin, globulin and fibrinogen (8) . Under the influence of an electrical field , charged molecules and particles migrate in the direction of the electrode bearing the apposite charge . Because of their varying charges and masses , different molecules and particles of a mixture will migrate at different speeds and will thus be separated into single fractions (9, 10) . Therefore, the electrophoresis is especially useful as an analytical method (11) . The measurement of serum/plasma protein concentration is one of the most frequent routine analyses performed to investigate hydroelectrolytic disorders, inflammatory or infectious diseases, colostrums intake, tumors, etc. Its determination is also prerequisite of protein electrophoresis (12) . The purpose of this article is to determine the total protein TP in plasma of patients with breast , ovary and uterus cancer comparing to normal subjects , evaluate the technique of quantitative and to investigate the effect of cancer on the plasma electrophoretic patterns in order to define average ranges . The advantage of reporting the qualitative appearances of the electrophoretogram with the concentrations of the electrophoretic bands , is indicated. Materials and methods : Collection of blood : All common laboratory chemicals and reagents were of analar grade , sera free of hemolysis were collected from all the target samples and stored at -20C ○ until time of analysis. Nine females were taken from physically normal volunteers used as controls aged between (25-45) years , fourty seven samples of serum were taken from patients cancers include : seventeen patients with breast cancer , thirteen patients with ovary cancer and seventeen patients with uterus cancer , aged between (25-45) Diala , Jour , Volume , 39 , 2009 97 years. After being classified by senior surgery (patient suffering from any disease, that may interfere with our study were excluded). Blood was also collected from seven pathological controls (pregnant women ), aged (2545) years. All patients were admitted for treatment to specialized surgical hospital. Determination of serum proteins : The serum proteins were determined by electrophoresis technique in patients of cancer, pathological controls and normal subjects by Sherwin and Kohn methods. (13,14) Statistical analysis : Descriptive statistics were used in analyzing the patients characteristics and laboratory parameters for each groups. In addition , unpaired student t – test was used to assess group differences , where appropriate . A statistical significant difference was accepted as p value less than 0.05 . All the statistical analysis in this study were made using SPSS 10.0 for windows program. Results : Table (1) show the results of (total protein , albumin and globulin) as (mean ± SD) g / dl in the sera of breast , ovary and uterus cancer patients , pregnant women and normal subjects : Table (1) : Serum protein concentration in breast , ovary and uterus cancer patients and normal subjects. Groups No. Total protein Mean ± SD g / dl Albumin Mean ± SD g / dl Globulin Mean ± SD g / dl Normal subjects 9 70.222 ± 4.52 39.556 ± 3.94 30.667 ± 2.59 Pregnant women 7 64.714 ± 6.6 33.857 ± 5.79 30.857 ± 6.41 Breast cancer patients 17 72.353 ± 6.9 40.118 ± 5.75 32.235 ± 8.05 Ovary cancer patients 13 71.385 ± 9.74 36.23 ± 8.07 33.615 ± 6.33 Uterus cancer patients 17 66.47 ± 8.17 34.235 ± 6.61 31.765 ± 7.77 Diala , Jour , Volume , 39 , 2009 98 The results indicated the presence of significant decrease (P<0.05) in albumin concentration in uterus cancer patients and in pregnant women and non significant difference (p>0.05) in breast and ovary cancer patients as compared to normal subjects, also a non significant difference (p>0.05) in total protein and globulin concentrations in all patients groups and pregnant women as compared to normal subjects. figure (1) shows the band of serum proteins of patients with breast , ovary and uterus cancer , pregnant women and normal subjects :