Ferritin and ß-HCG as tumor markers for detecting benign and malignant breast neoplasm

Background: the aim of this study was to determine serum ferritin and serum β-hcg levels in breast neoplasias vs. healthy controls, as well as their relation to the clinical stages of breast tumors. methods: serum ferritin and β-hcg were measured for 63 patients with benign tumors, 30 patients with malignant tumors and 52 controls (no breast tumor). the measurement was done through the irma method and by means of radim. mean serum ferritin and β-hcg were analyzed using anova. results: significant differences in serum ferritin levels were observed between the patient group and the control group. ferritin levels in patients with malignant tumors were higher than the other two groups (55.4 ng/ml for malignant versus 42.8ng/ml for benign and 26.7 ng/ml for control p < 0.05). stages of disease did not show any significant difference in ferritin levels (p=0.681). β-hcg showed no statistically significant differences among the three groups (the meanβ-hcg levels were 4.7 mlu/ml for malignant, 3.6 mlu/ml in benign, and 2.4 mlu/ml for control). no significant differences in β-hcg levels were observed between the different clinical stages (p = 0.83). conclusion: our study suggests that serum ferritin may be used for differentiating between benign and malignant breast neoplasms, but further study is needed to confirm this result.