Elevated Serum Levels of Heat Shock Protein 70 Are Associated with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent cause of cancer death in women throughout the world. Thus, it is necessary to establish sensitive screening, diagnosis and treatment methods for BC. Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) is an important cellular stress response protein that protects cells from apoptosis. Recent studies have shown that serum HSP70 levels may provide clinically important information in various types of cancer. HSP70 is also overexpressed in BC, which is known to be associated with cancer progression, apoptosis and cell proliferation. However, the serum level of HSP70 and its diagnostic and prognostic potential in BC have not been investigated yet. The aim of this study was to determine the usefulness of serum HSP70 level as a diagnostic test and its predictive value in patients with BC. This prospective study consisted of 45 female patients diagnosed with BC and 16 healthy women who were matched for age and body mass index (BMI). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique was used to measure the serum level of HSP70. The serum level of HSP70 was significantly higher in patients with BC than in the healthy control group (5.98 ± 2.05 vs. 1.49 ± 0.47 ng/ml, p = 0.001). HSP70 level > 2.41 ng/ml was the best cutoff value to predict BC (97.78% sensitivity and 93.75% specificity). This study shows that HSP70 can be used as an adjunct to other diagnostic tests for BC and may be helpful for identifying patients at increased risk of BC.

Hsp70 in cancer: A double agent in the battle between survival and death

“…As the accumulation of an R-loop is associated with cancer (Groh & Gromak, 2014) the importance of Hsp70 is more VOSTAKOLAEI ET AL. Serum collected from patients with pancreatic cancer Immunoelectrophoresis Serum Hsp70 level was significantly higher than the control group Dutta et al (2012) Serum collected from patients with breast cancer ELISA Serum Hsp70 level was significantly higher than the control group Gunaldi et al (2015) Plasma collected from patients with lung cancer ELISA Hsp70 level was significantly lower than the healthy group Tang et al (2018) Abbreviations: ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; FCM, flow cytometry; IHC, immunohistochemistry; IF, immunofluorescence microscopy; WB, western blot analysis.…”

Increased heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) serum levels and low NK cell counts after radiotherapy – potential markers for predicting breast cancer recurrence?

“…The highly conserved member of the 70 kDa heat shock protein family Hsp70 is considered as a DAMP when released as a free molecule by dying cancer cells [11] whereas exosomal Hsp70 (exHsp70) which is actively released by viable tumor cells serves as a marker for viable tumor mass [12, 13]. Elevated exHsp70 serum levels as detected by the lipHsp70 ELISA [14] that detects both, free and exosomal Hsp70 have been found in breast cancer patients [15], patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, lung cancer [16], colorectal carcinoma [17, 18] and other cancer entities [19]. Although high exHsp70 levels are generally associated with an adverse prognosis also in breast cancer patients [20, 21], less is known about the role of free Hsp70 as a predictive marker for therapy response.…”

Heat Shock Proteins in Lymphoma Immunotherapy

“…Another strategy to improve therapy responses involves the use of biomarkers that can predict clinical outcome. Large body of evidence suggests that extracellular HSPs can be used as predictive, prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers of cancer (31, 63,64,[242][243][244]. Further studies should be performed to assess expression of HSPs in extracellular milieu in their potential to predict clinical response in patients with HL and NHL.…”