Assessment of Periodontal Health Status and Serum Level of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Women with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Periodontal diseases are inflammatory diseases that affect theperiodontium which lead to alveolar bone and attachment loss.Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide.Expression of (VEGF) is elevated in both diseases and it is themarker of angiogenesis related to cancer development. 1. Todetermine the periodontal health status and the serum levels of(VEGF) in women with breast cancer in comparison to womenwithout breast cancer. 2. To correlate between serum levels ofVEGF with clinical periodontal parameters (PLI, GI, BOP, PPD,and CAL) in women with breast cancer in comparison to womenwithout breast cancer. Eighty women with age ranged from (30-60) years old, 40 women with breast cancer and another 40 womenwithout. Periodontal health status were taken for all participantsand then they were subdivided into four groups: the (BC +CP)group which included participants with breast cancer and chronicperiodontitis (n=20), the (BC+ G) group included participants withbreast cancer and gingivitis (n=20), the (CP) group which includedparticipants with chronic periodontitis only (n=20) and the (G)group which included participants with gingivitis only (n=20).Other than breast cancer, all subjects were systemically healthyfemales. Periodontal health status was determined by clinicalperiodontal examination of (PLI, GI, BOP, PPD and CAL). Bloodsamples were collected from each participant, serum levels ofVEGF were determined by enzyme -linked immune-sorbent assay(ELISA). The results of this study showed that the median valuesof PLI and GI were slightly increased in BC+G group incomparison to other groups with non-significant differences, thepercentages of BOP showed highly significant differences amongthe groups (P <0.01). The median values of PPD showed slightincrease in BC+CP group than CP group with non-significantdifferences. Median values of CAL were increased in CP groupthan BC+CP group with non-significant differences. VEGF serumlevels were elevated in BC+CP group than other groups with nonsignificantdifferences. Also by using Spearman’s rank CorrelationCoefficient, serum levels of VEGF were correlated positively withall clinical periodontal parameters. VEGF serum level could beassociated with progression of both periodontal diseases and breastcancer.