Total IgE Level in the Peripheral Blood of Patients with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers and the first cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Evidence suggests that allergies may be associated with cancer progression. Immunoglobulin E as part of the allergic immune response plays a role in the occurrence of type 1 hypersensitivity responses and allergic diseases such as asthma, allergies, allergic rhinitis, and probably cancers.

We carried out a cross-sectional study in breast cancer patients as a case group and people without cancer as a control group. Total IgE level in the groups was measured by ELISA method using the monoset kit by Calbiotech (USA). Data, including total IgE level and eosinophil percentage of the patients along with participans’ age were recorded in excel. Data analysis was done in SPSS V19 using T-test, Mann-Whitney and partial correlation.

In this study, 160 patients were examined. The mean ages of patients in the case group and control group were 48.18±10.49 years and 41.68±7.95 years, respectively. There was a significant difference between the two groups in mean age (P<0.001). IgE level was not found to be significantly different between the two groups (P=0.92). Findings revealed no significant difference in eosinophil percentage between breast cancer patients and healthy patients (P=0.82). We observed no significant correlation between age and IgE levels (r=-0.043, P=0.594) and eosinophil percentage (r=0.145, P=0.068) after control for groups.

This study showed that the levels of IgE and the percentage of eosinophils in the peripheral blood cannot be not considered as a predictive factor in the diagnosis of breast cancer.