The diagnostic,predictive, and prognostic role of serum epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) levels in breast cancer

The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical significance of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) in breast cancer (BC) patients. Ninety-six BC patients and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled into this study. Pretreatment serum markers were determined by the solid-phase sandwich (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)). The median age at diagnosis was 48 years (range 29–80 years). Majority of the patients (71 %) had luminal subtype, and 38.5 % had metastatic disease. Twenty-nine (30 %) patients showed tumor progression, and 20 (21 %) patients died during follow-up. Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 8.6?±?1.7 and 35.5?±?1.5 months, respectively. The baseline serum EpCAM levels of the patients were significantly higher than those of the controls (p?VCAM-1 between the patients and controls (p?=?0.47). No significant correlation was detected between the levels of the serum markers and other clinical parameters (p?>?0.05). Patients with HER-2-positive and triple-negative tumors had significantly poorer PFS (p?=?0.04 and p?=?0.001, respectively), while metastatic disease and chemotherapy unresponsiveness had significantly adverse effect on OS analysis (p?p?VCAM-1 levels nor serum EpCAM levels were identified to have a prognostic role on either PFS or OS (VCAM-1 p?=?0.76 and p?=?0.32; EpCAM p?=?0.16 and p?=?0.69, respectively). Even though any predictive or prognostic role could not be determined for both markers, serum levels of EpCAM were found to have diagnostic value in BC patients.