Anatomy & Physiology: Current Research
Open Access

Abstract

Does Elevated Alpha-fetoprotein During Pregnancy Protect Against Breast Cancer Later in Life? A Commentary

Mizejewski GJ

Elevated maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (sAFP) has been associated with a future breast cancer risk reduction in previously pregnant women. Past reports have indicated that the presence of high sAFP concentrations in the second and third pregnancy trimester could convey a protective effect against breast cancer later in life. During pregnancy, elevations of sAFP can be attributed to: a) twins and multiple pregnancies; b) fetal defects such as spina bifida and anencephaly; c) gestational hypertension; d) pre-eclampsia; and e) ethnicity. AFP is also elevated in adults with DNA repair diseases such as ataxia telangiectasia and Fanconi anemia. Normally, AFP is a growth enhancing agent; however, a conformationally-altered form of AFP (known as transformed AFP) as well as AFPderived peptides have been shown to be growth-inhibitory agents. It has further been demonstrated that various third domain AFP short amino acid sequence stretches can bind and interact with mutated and/or misfolded proteins of the cell cycle DNA repair process that erroneously allow replication of cells with damaged DNA. Thus, there appears to be at least three possible mechanisms working singly or in concert that might explain the observed breast cancer risk reduction in later the life of previously pregnant women.