Status of oxidative stress in breast cancer patients in Pakistani population

Background: Breast cancer is a major risk factor to the health of women around the globe and every year more than one million women are diagnosed with it. Pakistan is considered on the highest risk of breast cancer among Asian countries. One of the major reasons associated with higher incidence rate is oxidative stress condition in Pakistani women. The aim of this study was to analyze oxidative stress in patients with breast cancer in local population.Methods: Activity of antioxidant enzymes i.e. superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase, level of reduced glutathione (GSH) were measured in the blood samples of breast cancer patients. To emphasize the results and the extent of lipid peroxidation in terms of malonyl dialdehyde (MDA) level were also evaluated. All the activities from cancer patients were compared with those of healthy people taken as control.Results: The levels of GSH and MDA were found higher in the patients as compared to control group. While, activity of SOD and catalase enzymes was low in the diseased group.Conclusion: Our study shows a significant oxidative stress in breast cancer patients in local population