The changes of blood platelet activation in breast cancer patients before surgery, after surgery, and in various phases of the chemotherapy

Blood platelets from patients with cancer (before or after the surgery) exhibit a variety of qualitative abnormalities. Different anti-cancer drugs may also induce the oxidative/nitrative stress in blood platelets and change their hemostatic properties. The aim of our study was to explain the effect of superoxide anion radicals () production on hemostatic properties of blood platelets (activated by a strong physiological agonist – thrombin) from breast cancer patients before the surgery, after the surgery, and after various phases (I–IV) of chemotherapy (doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide). Patients were hospitalized in the Department of Oncological Surgery and at the Department of Chemotherapy, Medical University of Lodz, Poland. We measured the platelet aggregation as the marker of hemostatic activity of blood platelets. We observed an increase of in thrombin-activated blood platelets from patients with breast cancer (before or after the surgery and after various phases of the chemotherapy) compared to th...