Exploratory cross-sectional study reveals liver enzyme and lipid marker associations in women with prevalent breast cancer, indicating metabolic correlates of disease or therapy.
Key Points
Identify phenotypic, metabolic, and clinical correlates of prevalent breast cancer in a Middle Eastern population to address gaps in non-Western cancer epidemiology.
Screened 93 demographic, anthropometric, biochemical, and clinical variables among 96 women with physician-confirmed breast cancer and 471 healthy controls from the Qatar Biobank.
Employed a three-stage filtering protocol (Benjamini–Hochberg correction, Cliff's Delta, crude odds ratios) followed by age-adjusted multivariable logistic regression.
Age was the dominant correlate of breast cancer (OR = 1.10 per year, 95% CI: 1.08–1.13); adjusting for age fully attenuated associations with BMI, waist circumference, and glycated haemoglobin by over 100%.
Alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol remained independently associated with breast cancer status after age adjustment, unconfounded by adiposity or glycaemia.