Objective: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer and is one of the most common causes of cancer-related deaths among women. Although the fucosylation process is essential for normal biological functions, dysregulation of the fucosylation level may be involved in cancer and increasing its metastatic capacity. For this purpose, we evaluated the status of Fucosyltransferase-4 (FUT4) and Alpha-l-fucosidase (AFU) enzymes in healthy and tumor tissues of patients with breast cancer.

Materials and Methods: In this study, the levels of FUT4 and AFU were evaluated in 33 tumor tissues and matched adjacent tissue samples of breast cancer patients using the ELISA. Also, these levels were measured in the early and advanced stages of the disease.

Results: The results revealed that the tissue level of FUT4 in the tumor group was significantly higher than healthy ones, while there was no statistically significant relationship between its level changes and other clinicopathological features of tumor. Moreover, the AFU investigation showed a statistically significant relationship between its level with different stages and grades of the tumor, as well as lymph node involvement. Whereas, no significant differences observed in AFU level between tumor tissues and healthy ones.

Conclusions: The present study revealed that alterations in FUT4 and AFU levels may be involved in pathogenesis and progression of breast cancer. Therefore, investigation of their pathogenesis pathways in future studies may be helpful in the early diagnosis of breast cancer, prevention of its progression, as well as its therapeutic applications. Also, further and larger-scale studies are needed to confirm these findings.