Summary Purpose: To investigate the effect of inflammatory mark- ers on the prognosis of patients with operable breast can- cer. Methods: This study was conducted on breast cancer pa- tients followed up between December 2009 and December 2012 at the Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Hacettepe University Medical School. A total of 704 patients with stages I to III disease whose inflammatory markers were assessed at the time of diag- nosis were included the study. Serum C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), albumin, fer- ritin, β2 microglobulin (β2-M), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels were evaluated as inflammatory markers. Results: The median age at diagnosis was 50 years (range 25-92). Of the patients 42.8% were premenopausal and 48.2 % postmenopausal. Invasive ductal carcinoma was the most common histology (76.5 %). Serum ferritin, LDH, β2-M, ESR, and CRP were higher than the normal values in 1.0, 4.3, 9.5, 32.4 and 36.4 % of the patients, respective- ly. Serum albumin levels were lower than the normal val- ues in 1.7 % of the patients. The median patient follow-up period was 22 months (range 3-227). During follow-up, metastatic disease developed in 31 patients (4.4%) and 11 patients (1.56%) died due to disease progression. Two-year overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) rates were not statistically different among patients with nor- mal and abnormal values with respect to albumin, ferri- tin, LDH, β2-M, CRP, and ESR. Conclusion: Our study is the first study to investigate the effect of inflammatory markers on the prognosis of opera- ble breast cancer patients. We showed that inflammatory markers such as ESR, CRP, ferritin, β2-M, albumin and LDH have no effect on prognosis. Key words: breast cancer, inflammatory markers, prog- nosis Impact of inflammatory markers on the prognosis of patients with operable breast cancer Ibrahim Petekkaya, Sercan Aksoy, Emir C. Roach, Alexis K Okoh, Gizen Gecmez, Gamze Gezgen, Deniz C Isler, Erkan Dogan, Taner Babacan, Furkan Sarici, Emine Petekkaya, Kadri Altundag Department of Medical Oncology, Hacettepe University Cancer Institute, Ankara, Turkey Correspondence to: Kadri Altundag, MD. Department of Medical Oncology, Hacettepe University Cancer Institute, Sihhiye 06100, Ankara, Turkey. Tel: +90 312 3052954, Fax: +90 312 3242009, E-mail: altundag66@yahoo.com Received: 01/03/2014; Accepted: 18/03/2014 Introduction Breast cancer is the most frequently diag- nosed and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women globally. Over the past few dec- ades its incidence has increased but a fall in the death rate has been observed due to improved sur- vival. Improvement in survival is associated with earlier detection of disease, multidisciplinary therapeutic approach and biological changes that have made the disease more susceptible to hor- monal therapy [1]. In recent years, earlier detection of the dis- ease (both through screening and earlier sympto- matic presentation) has led to a rise in the number of operable breast cancer cases. Early detection of patients during the early stage of disease, progress in surgical procedures, adjuvant hormonal thera- py and polychemotherapy are some of the factors that contributed to a decrease of breast cancer as- sociated morbidity and mortality. An increase in the treatment choices for breast cancer can be at- tributed to factors such as the perception of breast cancer as a systemic disease right aſter diagnosis and the current ongoing debate on patient selec- tion for neoadjuvant and adjuvant systemic ther- apy. In this way, staging that had already begun in patients, prognostic factors associated with JBUON 2014; 19(3): 673-680 ISSN: 1107-0625, online ISSN: 2241-6293 • www.jbuon.com E-mail: editorial_office@jbuon.com ORIGINAL ARTICLE