Chitinase-3-Like Protein1 (YKL-40) as Biomarker in Serum of Breast Cancer Females: A Hospital Based Study

Background: Chitinase-3-like protein1 (YKL-40) is a human glycoprotein related in amino acid sequence to the chitinase protein family, but has no chitinase activity, its expression was shown to be highly expressed in breast cancer. Aim: To detect level of YKL-40 in metastatic and non-metastatic breast cancer patients and to compare the results with healthy females. Patients and Methods: 109 female patients were enrolled in this study; 43 non-metastatic 36 metastatic breast cancer patients. Thirty healthy females were also included as controls. YKL-40 level was detected in serum of studied groups using ELISA kit provided from Quantikine R D systems, Minneapolis, USA. Results: The median level of YKL-40 was statistically significant higher in both non-metastatic and metastatic cases when compared to the healthy controls (p 0.001). Comparing the levels of YKL-40 at different nodal affection showed that there was statistical significant difference between N1, N2 and N3 in non-metastatic group (with the highest median in patients with N3) as well as between N2 and N3 (with higher median in patients with N3) in metastatic group (p 0.001). Receiver operator characteristic analysis suggested that a serum YKL-40 level cut-off value of 92.696 may have predictive value for breast cancer. Conclusion: We concluded that there is significantly elevated serum YKL-40 level in breast cancer compared to healthy controls. YKL-40 may discriminate between various stages and between metastatic and non-metastatic cases.