Assessment of IGF-1 expression in the peripheral blood of women with recurrent breast cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women worldwide. The insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) gene encodes a protein responsible for a wide variety of physiological processes, including differentiation and cell proliferation. Despite several studies on tumor tissues, no study has evaluated IGF-1 expression in the peripheral blood of women with recurrent breast cancer. In this cross-sectional study, IGF-1 expression in the peripheral blood of 146 women with breast cancer treated approximately 5 years ago was quantified by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain. The women were divided into 2 groups: non-recurrence (n = 85) and recurrence (n = 61). Statistical analysis of the data was performed using ANOVA, Mann–Whitney, and Chi-squared tests ( P < .05). The results showed no significant difference in IGF-1 expression between the non-recurrence and recurrence groups ( P = .988). In the subgroups of patients with lymph node involvement, no statistically significant difference was observed in IGF-1 expression between women with recurrence and those non-recurrence ( P = .113). In patients without lymph node metastases, IGF-1 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression levels were significantly higher in the non-recurrence group than in the recurrence group ( P = .019). Furthermore, using the median IGF-1 mRNA expression as the cutoff point, it was obtained a statistically significant difference in tumor histological grade among women with recurrent breast cancer ( P = .042). These data showed significantly higher IGF-1 expression in women without lymph node metastases in the non-recurrence group compared with the recurrence group. In addition, a significant difference was observed in median IGF-1 mRNA expression in relation to tumor histological grade in women with recurrent breast cancer.

Hematological and biochemical markers influencing breast cancer risk and mortality: Prospective cohort study in the UK Biobank by multi-state models

“…We hypothesized that the direct association between IGF-1 and breast cancer mortality was mainly due to the increased incidence, as it did not influence the transition from breast cancer incidence to mortality. Our hypothesis was further supported by previous evidence that IGF-1 expression in the peripheral blood was not associated with breast cancer recurrence [ 50 ].…”