Cadmium Induced Breast Cancer and RNA Gene Expression

Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal that is ubiquitous all over the world. Breast cancer is the most widely recognized tumor affecting women. The work aims to study the effect of cadmium toxicity on cancer associated genes expression in a sample of breast cancer Egyptian patients. A case - control study was conducted on 100 female patients attending the Surgical Oncology Center and complaining from breast mass. From each patient 10 gm breast tissue sample was collected for estimation of cadmium by atomic absorption spectrometer and testing RNA gene expression (CycD1; CycE; cdk2; c-myc; and GAPDH as housekeeping gene) using Real Time - Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT – PCR). The results found that the age of breast cancer patients ranged from 37–74 years. The cadmium level and four genes expression levels were significantly higher in tumor tissue as compared to both non - cancerous and healthy tissues (p < 0.001). Also no significant difference in Cd and gene expression levels were found when compared between hormone receptors positive or negative cancer patients (p > 0.05). It could be concluded that Cd may induce breast cancer through increasing the cancer associated gene expression responsible for cell proliferation.