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Risk of secondary lymphedema in breast cancer survivors is related to serum phospholipid fatty acid desaturation

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Abstract

Purpose

Secondary lymphedema is a common irreversible side effect of breast cancer surgery. We investigated if risk of secondary lymphedema in breast cancer survivors was related to changes in serum phospholipid fatty acid composition.

Methods

Study subjects were voluntarily recruited into the following three groups: breast cancer survivors who had sentinel lymph node biopsy without lymphedema (SLNB), those who had auxillary lymph node dissection without lymphedema (ALND), and those who had ALND with lymphedema (ALND + LE). Body mass index (BMI), serum lipid profiles, bioimpedance data with single-frequency bioimpedance analysis (SFBIA), and serum phospholipid compositions were analyzed and compared among the groups.

Results

BMI, serum total cholesterol (total-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and SFBIA ratios increased only in the ALND + LE. High polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and high C20:4 to C18:2 n-6 PUFAs (arachidonic acid [AA]/linoleic acid [LA]) was detected in the ALND and ALND + LE groups compared to SLNB. The ALND + LE group showed increased activity indices for delta 6 desaturase (D6D) and D5D and increased ratio of AA to eicosapentaenoic acid (AA/EPA) compared to the ALND and SLNB groups. Correlation and regression analysis indicated that D6D, D5D, and AA/EPA were associated with SFBIA ratios.

Conclusion

We demonstrated that breast cancer survivors with lymphedema had elevated total PUFAs, fatty acid desaturase activity indices, and AA/EPA in serum phospholipids. Our findings suggested that desaturation extent of fatty acid composition might be related to the risk of secondary lymphedema in breast cancer survivors.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (MSIP; No. 2014R1A2A2A01006008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing, College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea

    Eunjung Ryu

  2. Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Human Ecology, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

    Seung Yun Yim & Seung-Min Lee

  3. Department of Public Health Sciences, BK21PLUS Program in Embodiment:Health-Society Interaction, Graduate School, Korea University, Seoul, 136-701, South Korea

    Hyun Ju Do & Min-Jeong Shin

  4. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University, Seongnam, South Korea

    Jae-Young Lim & Eun Joo Yang

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  1. Eunjung Ryu
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Correspondence to Seung-Min Lee.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and it followed the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki.

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Ryu, E., Yim, S.Y., Do, H.J. et al. Risk of secondary lymphedema in breast cancer survivors is related to serum phospholipid fatty acid desaturation. Support Care Cancer 24, 3767–3774 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3197-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3197-z

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