Assessment of serum copper and magnesium in esophageal cancer patients

Background: Cancer esophagus continues to be an aggressive tumor that causes high mortality. Even with new approaches, treatment remains disappointing. There are various known risk factors that increase the chances of development in carcinoma esophagus; in this context, we conducted this study to find if there is any association of serum copper and magnesium as a risk factor in the development of carcinoma esophagus. Aim: This study aimed to assess the serum levels of copper and magnesium in carcinoma esophagus patients. Materials and Methods: Between June 2016 and 2018, 200 cases of histologically confirmed carcinoma esophagus (study group) and 200 healthy individuals (control group) from the same socioeconomic status were enrolled in the study prospectively. Blood samples were taken from both the groups at the same time for the analysis of serum copper and magnesium was done by atomic absorption spectrophotometrically. The rationale was to find out if there is any deficiency or access of these micronutrients in either of the groups. Results: Of 400 cases, males were predominant 58.5% and 65.5% than females 41.5% and 34.5% in the study and control group, respectively. The mean age was 62.1 ± 12.61 and 59.8 ± 14.87 years in the study and control group, respectively. In our study, we observed that no significant difference was seen in serum magnesium levels in both the groups, while a high level of serum copper was found in the study group and seems to have a strong association with the development of carcinoma esophagus. Conclusions: The higher serum copper levels, as observed in this study, has any role to play as a risk factor in the development of cancer esophagus need to be studied at a larger sample size.