Abstract 991: Association of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein with health-related quality of life among breast cancer survivors
Authors: Cho Hyun Jeong , Kim Zisun , Youn Hyun Jo , Cho Jihyoung , Lee Jung Eun 
Published: July 2017

Backgrounds/Aims Decline in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is associated with worse prognosis among patients with breast cancer. Increased risk of inflammation with cancer-related symptoms such as low physical function, depression and pain could be a potential mechanism. We aimed to examine whether high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were related to HRQoL among breast cancer survivors.

Methods This cross-sectional study of Korean breast cancer survivors included a total of 165 women aged 29 to 63 years who had been diagnosed with stage I to III breast cancer and survived six months or more after surgery. Post-diagnostic HRQoL levels were measured using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) containing eight components: physical functioning, role-physical, body pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and mental health. The higher scores indicated better HRQoL. Circulating levels of hs-CRP were measured using particle-enhanced immunoturbidimetric assay. We categorized hs-CRP levels to four groups; &lt;0.4, 0.4-&lt;0.6, 0.6-&lt;1.0 mg/L (low risk), and ≥1.0 mg/L (average or high risk) on the basis of the Centers for Disease Control/American Heart Association criteria (low risk; &lt;1.0 mg/L, average risk; 1.0-3.0 mg/L, and high risk; &gt;3.0 mg/L). We calculated the least square means (LS-means) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using generalized linear models (GLM) to examine the associations of each component with categories of hs-CRP according to HRQoL levels. We adjusted for age at diagnosis, body mass index at diagnosis, weight change, income level, stage at diagnosis, time since surgery, tumor size and plasma vitamin D levels.

Results We found that increasing levels of physical functioning and role-physical components were associated with decreasing levels of hs-CRP; according to &lt;0.4, 0.4-&lt;0.6, 0.6-&lt;1.0, and ≥1.0 mg/L of hs-CRP, LS-means (95% CIs) were 78.1 (73.2-83.0), 75.2 (69.6-80.8), 76.1 (69.5-82.7), 70.1 (64.5-75.7), respectively (p for trend = 0.05) for physical functioning and 77.5 (70.6-84.4), 81.0(73.2-88.8), 79.4(70.2-88.7), 66.6(58.7-74.4), respectively (p for trend = 0.05) for role-physical. Higher scores of mental components were also associated with lower levels of hs-CRP; LS-means (95% CIs) of &lt;0.4 and ≥1.0 mg/L of hs-CRP levels were 84.6 (77.8-91.4) and 67.1 (59.4-74.9; p for trend = 0.002) for role-emotional, 87.4 (82.3-92.6) and 77.4 (71.5-83.4; p for trend = 0.03) for social functioning, 62.4 (56.4-68.4) and 53.3 (46.5-60.2; p for trend = 0.05) for vitality.

Conclusions High circulating levels of hs-CRP, an inflammation biomarker, were associated with lower levels of HRQoL among Korean breast cancer survivors. Funding information This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2014R1A2A2A01007794)

Citation Format: Hyun Jeong Cho, Zisun Kim, Hyun Jo Youn, Jihyoung Cho, Jung Eun Lee. Association of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein with health-related quality of life among breast cancer survivors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 991. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-991