Evidence of an Association Between Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Cytokine Genes and Pain in Women Prior to Breast Cancer Surgery

The purposes of this study were to determine the occurrence rate for preoperative breast pain; describe the characteristics of this pain; evaluate for differences in demographic and clinical characteristics; and evaluate for variations in pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine genes between women who did and did not report pain. Patients (n=398) were recruited prior to surgery and completed self-report questionnaires to obtain information on pain characteristics. Genotyping was done using the Golden Gate genotyping platform. Of note, 28.2% of the patients reported pain prior to surgery. Women who reported pain were significantly younger (p < 0.001), a higher percentage were non-white (p= 0.018), reported significantly lower Karnofsky Performance Status scores (p = 0.008), were less likely to have gone through menopause (p = 0.012), and had had significantly more biopsies (p=0.006). Carriers of the minor allele for a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in IL1R1 (rs2110726; p = 0.007) were less likely to report breast pain prior to surgery. In contrast carriers of the minor allele for a SNP in IL13 (rs1295686; p= 0.019) were more likely to report breast pain prior to surgery. Findings from this study suggest that pain is a problem for over a quarter of women who are about to undergo breast cancer surgery. Based on the characteristics of the pain and the increased number of biopsies in women who reported pain, as well as the genetic associations found, this pain problem has an inflammatory component