Elsevier

Atherosclerosis

Volume 52, Issue 3, September 1984, Pages 339-346
Atherosclerosis

Research paper
Serum lipoproteins and proteins after breast cancer surgery and effects of tamoxifen

https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9150(84)90064-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Serum proteins and lipoproteins were determined in 23 menopausal females after surgery for early forms of breast cancer and the results compared with data from a matched group of randomly selected healthy females. The patients were randomly divided into 2 groups, one serving as a control group, the other receiving 40 mg tamoxifen daily for 2 months. Breast cancer patients were found to have significantly higher concentrations of serum cholesterol than controls (7.90 ± 1.15 vs. 6.87 ± 1.18 mmol/1, P < 0.001), which was the result of a 16% higher concentration in LDL cholesterol (P < 0.05) and a 13% higher concentration in HDL cholesterol (P < 0.05).

During tamoxifen therapy total TG tended to increase, whereas total cholesterol fell. Significant lipoprotein changes were found in the LDL fraction where LDL-TG increased from 0.46 to 0.56 (P < 0.01) and LDL cholesterol fell from 5.11 to 4.10 mmol/l (P < 0.001). During tamoxifen therapy haptoglobin and orosomucoid concentrations fell significantly (P < 0.01), whereas those of α-antitrypsin and ceruloplasmin increased (P < 0.001). Factors such as diet and weight may explain the differences between breast cancer patients and controls. The tamoxifen-induced changes indicate that this anti-oestrogen exerted a mild oestrogen-like effect with regard to protein and lipoprotein metabolism.

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    This work was supported by ICI-Pharma, Sweden and the Swedish Medical Research Council (19X-204).

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