Background. The aim of this study was to show the importance of the bone marker
procollagen type 1 aminoterminal propeptide (P1NP) in detecting bone
metastases in women suffering from
breast cancer. We furthermore investigated to what degree P1NP is correlated to the degree of bone
metastases, and if P1NP is increased in patients with
metastases other than bone. Patients and Methods. We analyzed 80 serum samples of women (17 premenopausal/63 postmenopausal) with
breast cancer. Therefore we used a specific immunoassay "ELECSYS 2010" by Roche Diagnostics. We divided our group of patients with regard to menopausal status, sites of
metastases and number of bone
metastases. Results. As a result we found higher concentrations of P1NP in women with radiologically confirmed bone
metastases (median: 125.75 ng/mL) in comparison to the collective without bone involvement (median: 73.61 ng/mL). However, both groups showed values above the applied cutoff values of median 27.8 ng/mL for premenopausal women and median: 37.1 ng/mL for the postmenopausal group due to the fact that all patients had
cancer. Furthermore higher P1NP concentrations were found in women with more than 5 sites of bone
metastases (median: 183.9 ng/mL) than in patients with only one site of bone
metastases (median: 37 ng/mL). Also patients with no bone involvement but other sites of
metastases showed quite high P1NP concentrations (median: 73.61 ng/mL). Conclusion. The marker of bone turnover
procollagen type 1 aminoterminal propeptide can be considered as a useful tool for estimating the extent of bone involvement and for the detection of bone
metastases. P1NP cannot replace conventional methods for detecting bone
metastases such as radiological methods but it can help clarify unclear radiological results. This study does not take into account the change of P1NP concentration during the course of
therapy.