Inflammation-related serum proteins are associated with the quality of life in chemotherapy-treated early breast cancer patients

Background Adjuvant chemotherapy reduces mortality in early breast cancer patients but decreases health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) during and even after treatment. Inflammation is a crucial hallmark of carcinogenesis, but its role in HRQoL in chemotherapy-receiving early breast cancer patients is unresolved. In this study, we evaluated the linkage between a large panel of inflammation-related proteins and HRQoL in early breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. Methods A total of 167 early breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy were enrolled in this study across five Finnish University Hospitals. Patients completed the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire at baseline (before chemotherapy), at three months (during chemotherapy), and at six months (after chemotherapy). The levels of 738 serum inflammation-related proteins were measured using Olink proximity extension assays before the start of chemotherapy and subsequently correlated with the HRQoL data at different time points. Results After adjusting for multiple comparisons, 47 serum inflammatory proteins were significantly associated with HRQoL scales. For example, high level of baseline leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor subfamily B member 4 (LILRB4) was associated with increased dyspnoea during treatment (adjusted P = 0.013) and fucose mutarotase (FUOM) with decreased physical functioning (adjusted P = 0.0073). Conclusions Several inflammation-related proteins were associated with increased dyspnoea and poorer physical and role functioning before, during, or after the adjuvant chemotherapy. Given the established roles of these proteins in various lung-related and metabolic diseases, our findings are of interest to future studies aimed at identifying biomarker proteins for the early prevention of severe or long-lasting chemotherapy-induced toxicity.