Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most dangerous malignant diseases in females. However, the reliable serum
biomarkers of BC still need to be explored. Chemerin levels have been found to be associated with different types of
cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the role of serum chemerin as a
biomarker of BC diagnosis, as well as the correlation between serum chemerin levels and clinicopathological features. The serum from 248 BC patients, 30 breast benign
tumor patients, and 103 healthy controls were collected and serum chemerin levels were determined with
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay. We found that serum levels of chemerin in BC patients were higher than those in healthy control individuals (p < 0.05). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) for chemerin, CA15-3 and CEA was 0.703, 0.662 and 0.581, respectively, in distinguishing between
breast cancer patients from healthy individuals, and the chemerin cutoff value was 100.327 ng/ml with a sensitivity of 56.60% and a specificity of 98.10%. The AUC for chemerin + CA15-3 was 0.822, which was higher than that for chemerin + CEA and CEA + CA15-3. Moreover, serum levels of chemerin were significantly associated with histologic grade, Ki67 expression, and menopausal status. However, no significant association was found between serum levels of chemerin and age,
tumor size,
metastase, ER status, PR status, and HER-2 status. Overall, our study suggested that the combination of chemerin with CA15-3 achieves relatively better diagnostic performance in the
breast cancer. Elevated serum chemerin is associated with Ki67 expression levels and histologic grade.