Association between Components of the Insulin-Like Growth Factor System and Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Risk

Abstract

Background: Components of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system have been associated with several cancers, but very few studies are available for ovarian cancer. Methods: A case-control study conducted between 1999 and 2003 in Italy, including a total of 59 women with incident, histologically confirmed ovarian cancer and 108 controls admitted to the same hospital network as cases, for acute non-neoplastic diseases. All subjects were interviewed using a validated questionnaire. Results: After adjustment for potential confounders, the multivariate odds ratios for the highest versus the lowest tertile of various IGF components were 0.6 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.2–1.4) for free IGF-I, 0.4 (CI: 0.1–1.5) for total IGF-I, 2.6 (CI: 0.9–6.9) for IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-1, and 0.2 (CI: 0.0–0.6) for IGFBP-3. Conclusions: This study suggests a protective role of IGFBP-3 and a positive association of IGFBP-1 with ovarian cancer. The complex role of the IGF system in ovarian carcinogenesis deserves further clarification.

Relationship between a wide range of alcohol consumptions, components of the insulin-like growth factor system and adiponectin

“…Our data are in agreement with the Greek study and correlations between adiponectin and any IGFs where below |0.20|. These findings support the independency of adiponectin from the IGF system, and suggest the possibility that adiponectin and IGFs play different regulatory roles on insulin resistance, metabolism, body size and chronic diseases (Petridou et al, 2003;Augustin et al, 2004;Dal Maso et al, 2004a). …”

“…They were centrifuged at 1500 r.p.m. for 20 min, stored at À801C and sent to the Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, Canada (Augustin et al, 2004;Dal Maso et al, 2004a). The IGF components were analyzed in ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid plasma samples by means of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (Diagnostic System Laboratories (DSL), Webster, TX, USA).…”

“…0900) with a sensitivity of 0.4 ng/ml was used to assess IGFBP-1. All assays were run in duplicates with an average intra-assay variation coefficient of o8% (Dal Maso et al, 2004a). Adiponectin analysis was blindly performed at the Human Nutritional Research Unit, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA), by means of a radioimmunoassay with a sensitivity of 2 ng/ml, and intra-assay coefficient of variation of 8% (Dal Maso et al, 2004b).…”

“…IGF-I, in particular, has been associated with the risk of prostate, breast and colorectal cancers (Kaaks et al, 2000;Sandhu et al, 2002;Renehan et al, 2004). IGF-binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) has been also positively related to breast cancer, in premenopausal women, and to colorectal cancer (Kaaks et al, 2000), but IGFBP-3 was inversely related to ovarian cancer (Dal Maso et al, 2004a). IGFBP-1 was directly related with ovarian (Dal Maso et al, 2004a) and, possibly, endometrial cancer (Augustin et al, 2004), whereas an inverse association emerged with colorectal cancer (Kaaks et al, 2000).…”

“…IGF-binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) has been also positively related to breast cancer, in premenopausal women, and to colorectal cancer (Kaaks et al, 2000), but IGFBP-3 was inversely related to ovarian cancer (Dal Maso et al, 2004a). IGFBP-1 was directly related with ovarian (Dal Maso et al, 2004a) and, possibly, endometrial cancer (Augustin et al, 2004), whereas an inverse association emerged with colorectal cancer (Kaaks et al, 2000). An inverse association with endometrial (Petridou et al, 2003;Dal Maso et al, 2004b) and breast cancer (Mantzoros et al, 2004) risk emerged for plasma adiponectin.…”