Breast cancer a multifactorial disease with its uncertain etiology remains as one of the most dreaded of human diseases that claims the lives of thousands of women all over the globe every year. This may probably be due to the fact that it remains undiagnosed at an early stage perhaps because of the lack of awareness amongst the females and the fact that most cancers do not produce any symptoms until the tumours are too large to be removed surgically. Keeping in mind the fact that enzymatic pattern is significantly altered in malignancy; the present study was designed to evaluate the role of certain biomarkers in early detection of the disease in northwest Punjabi population. The study included 75 confirmed cases of carcinoma breast and 75 normal healthy females. Serum Adenosine Deaminase (ADA), Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) levels were evaluated. A significant increase was observed in serum ADA (p<0.001) and LDH (p<0.001) levels in carcinoma breast patients in comparison to normal control subjects. These levels increased significantly with increasing severity of carcinoma breast (stage I to IV). Postoperatively, serum ADA and LDH levels decreased significantly (p<0.001). In case of serum Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), the trend was somewhat different showing significant increase at stage IV only which further increased after mastectomy showing the role of serum ALP estimations in metastatic conditions only? The postoperative increase in serum ALP levels could be attributed to the involvement of liver. There was observed a positive coefficient of correlation (r) between serum ADA and LDH levels suggesting that LDH estimation can serve as an adjunct to ADA estimations in diagnosis of various stages of breast cancer. Serum ADA levels > 30 IU/L and < 51.53±3.33 IU/L and LDH > 480 IU/L <557.23±25.75 IU/L could be helpful in early diagnosis of the disease.
