Salivary and plasmatic levels of tumor necrosis factor‐alpha do not correlate with the clinicopathological profile in breast cancer patients

Abstract

Herein, we evaluated the salivary and plasmatic levels of tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) in women diagnosed with breast cancer (BC; n = 20) versus women with benign breast conditions (Control; n = 29) and correlated the TNF‐α findings with BC clinicopathological parameters. TNF‐α was higher in the saliva samples from both groups than in plasma levels. BC and Control patients presented similar plasmatic and salivary values of TNF‐α. The salivary and plasmatic values of TNF‐α did not correlate with tumor features (estrogen receptor; progestogen receptor; Ki67, and HER2), indicating that its salivary content does not correlate with the parameters of disease prognosis. Therefore, TNF‐α is not helpful as a salivary marker in breast cancer patients.