Anti-tumour therapy and renal-associated derangements among Breast Cancer Patients attending University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar Nigeria

Abstract

Among the different biomedical derangements that have been observed in breast cancer, renal function parameters are considered quite important. Renal-associated derangements are part of the critical aspects in the management of cancer patients. These morbidity indicators could find usefulness in determining the dynamics of genetic and pharmacologic interplay with regards to anti-tumour agents. The present study therefore focused on women of Southern Nigerian descent who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and receiving chemotherapy after surgical removal of the breast tumour. The study was conducted in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar. It included 36 cases of pathologically diagnosed breast cancer (BC) patients as well as 36 apparently healthy females drawn from the general population who served as control group. Ethical approval and informed consent were duly sought from the Health and Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. Standard colorimetric methods were used to determine all the parameters (Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Bicarbonate, Urea and Creatinine) among the BC patients who were receiving adjuvant 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide (FEC) chemotherapy and the control group. The data obtained were analyzed in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) using students t-test at 95% confidence level with p-value of ≤ 0.05. Breast Cancer patients had significantly lower mean value of Chloride compared to controlsubjects(p = 0.022). In terms of derangements, this study recorded higher proportions of hyponatremia (42%), hypokalemia (33%) and hypochloremia (42%) alongside hypercreatininemia (33%). The observed hyponatremia and hypokalemia were mainly mild-moderate (31% and 33% respectively) in terms of severity. In conclusion, this study observed renal-associated derangements among breast cancer patients on treatment, mainly in the form of hyponatremia, hypokalemia, hypochloremia and hypercreatininemia.