Antibodies to benzo[a]pyrene, estradiol and progesterone in the postmenopausal breast cancer women

The identification of women who are at high risk of developing breast cancer plays a key role in chemoprevention of breast cancer selective estrogen receptor modulators. Purpose: To study specific immune responses to chemical carcinogens and sex steroid hormones associated with breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Material and methods. Serum IgA-antibodies specific to benzo[a]pyrene, estradiol and progesterone were studied in 203 non-smoking healthy women and 469 non-smoking breast cancer patients (125 with ER- and 344 with ER+) using semi-quantitative enzyme immunoassay. Results. The low levels of all three antibodies were revealed in 53.2 % of healthy donors, in 47.2 % of breast cancer patients with ER- and in 40.7 % of patients with ER+. The high levels of all three antibodies were found in 12.3 %, 18.4 % and 26.5 % of cases, respectively. In the studied groups, the levels of antibodies to estradiol and progesterone were correlated with the levels of antibodies to benzo[a]pyrene (rs=0.54-0.7, p