Status of Oxidative Stress and Antioxidant Levels in Smokers with Breast Cancer from Western Nepal

Background: Research indicates that oxidative stress induced by smoking plays a role in breast cancer. Inview of these reports, we aimed to study th relationship between smoking and oxidative stress in breast cancerpatients from the western region of Nepal. Materials and
Methods: The study included a control group of 42females (non-smoking healthy women) and a test group sudivided into Group I consisting of 46 female breastcancer patients who were smokers and Group II consisting of 42 non-smoking breast cancer patients. Detailedhistory of the patients was collected with the help of pre-test proforma. Plasma levels of malondialdehyde (MDA),total antioxidant activity (TAA) which represents total dietary antioxidants, vitamin C and α- tocopherol wereestimated by standard methods. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 16.
Results: The plasma MDA,TAA, vitamin C and α- tocopherol were 1±1.4nmol/ml, 918±207μmol/L, 1±0.24mg/dL and 0.94±0.31mg/dL incontrols, 5±1.2nmol/ml, 458±166 μmol/L, 0.64±0.32mg/dL and 0.5±0.3mg/dL in Group-I and 2.56±1.2nmol/ml,663±178 μmol/L, 0.78±0.2mg/dL and 0.77±0.2mg/dL in Group- II, respectively. Vitamin C, α- tocopherol andTAA (p=0.001) were significantly reduced whereas MDA (p=0.001) was significantly raised in Group-I whencompared to controls and Group-II.
Conclusions: We observed a significant rise in oxidative stress and lowlevels of antioxidants in breast cancer patients with smoking habit. It is well known that free radicals facilitatethe progression of breast cancer, possibly increasing the risk of progression to the next stage.