Evaluation of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels and Their Relationship with Breast Cancer Biomarkers CA15-3 and CEA: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Introduction

Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent and often overlooked, especially in countries like Morocco. Concurrently, breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women globally. Recent interest has focused on the link between vitamin D levels and breast cancer development. This study aims to examine the relationship between serum levels of breast cancer biomarkers and vitamin D status in Moroccan women, while exploring associations with clinicopathological features.

Materials and methods

A retrospective analysis was conducted on 116 Moroccan women. The vitamin D status and serum levels of CA15-3 and CEA were evaluated by Competitive Immunoassay Technique with End-Point Fluorescence Detection (ELFA) and Chemiluminescent Microparticle Immunoassay (CMI). Statistical analyses evaluated the associations between vitamin D status and breast cancer risk, with a particular focus on comparing CA15-3 and CEA levels between vitamin D-deficient and non-deficient patients.

Results

Vitamin D deficiency was significantly associated with elevated CA15-3 levels (p = 0.041), with all patients showing elevated CA15-3 being vitamin D deficient. However, no significant correlation was identified between vitamin D levels and CEA (p = 0.221). In vitamin D-deficient patients, a negative correlation was observed between vitamin D and CA15-3 levels (r = − 0.244, p = 0.017), suggesting that lower vitamin D levels may contribute to higher CA15-3 concentrations.

Conclusion

Our findings highlight that a significant association was observed between CA15-3 levels (abnormal ≥ 30 U/mL) and vitamin D status (p = 0.041), but the logistic regression model did not confirm this association. This suggests that additional factors may influence this association, and further studies are needed to confirm these findings.