Assessment of Complete Blood Count in the Breast Cancer Patients of Arsenic Exposed Population of Bihar.

Author(s): Yerravarapu Vamsi Krishna, Chandrajeet Kumar and Arun Kumar

Arsenic contamination of groundwater has recently been recognized as a major threat to human health. They developed cancer after being exposed to arsenic for a long time. Among women, breast cancer is a rapidly expanding health problem in the modern era. Arsenic exposure leads to hormonal imbalance and breast cancer in the exposed population. Blood samples from n=203 breast cancer study participants and n=100 control female individuals were taken for analysis of complete blood count in this present research. The study reveals that there is significant elevation in the WBC counts and decrease in the RBC counts, platelets counts and haemoglobin percentage in the breast cancer patients. Out of n=203, female breast cancer patients, n=174 subject’s blood had significant changes in the haematological parameters in comparison to the control patient’s blood samples. Women who have been exposed to arsenic for an extended period of time in the state of Bihar have hormonal imbalances in their bodies as a result of the poisoning. In the present study, there was significant decrease (p<0.05) in the RBC counts in 92% of breast cancer patients in comparison to the control patients. Moreover, RBC indices were significantly fluctuated (p<0.05) in PCV%, MCV, MCH and MCHC levels in breast cancer patients in comparison to the control patients. The haemoglobin percentage in 94% in breast cancer patients had significant less levels (p<0.05) in comparison to the control patients. Finally, there was significant increase (p<0.05) in the WBC counts in 85% of the breast cancer patients in comparison to the control patients. This denotes that there haemotological parameters are highly affected. Moreover, these breast cancer patients were from the arsenic hotspot areas, where in the recent times the breast cancer disease burden has increased many folds. Hence, there is need to make strategies to control the disease burden in these arsenic hotspot regions.