Circulating insulin‐like growth factor I in relation to melanoma risk in the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition

Abstract

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) regulates cell proliferation and apoptosis, and is thought to play a role in tumour development. Previous prospective studies have shown that higher circulating concentrations of IGF-I are associated with a higher risk of cancers at specific sites, including breast and prostate. No prospective study has examined the association between circulating IGF-I concentrations and melanoma risk. A nested case-control study of 1221 melanoma cases and 1221 controls was performed in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort, a prospective cohort of 520,000 participants recruited from 10 European countries. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for incident melanoma in relation to circulating IGF-I concentrations, measured by immunoassay. Analyses were conditioned on the matching factors and further adjusted for age at blood collection, education, height, BMI, smoking status, alcohol intake, marital status, physical activity, and in women only, use of menopausal hormone therapy. There was no significant association between circulating IGF-I concentration and melanoma risk (OR for highest vs lowest fifth=0.93 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.71 to 1.22)). There was no significant heterogeneity in the association between IGF-I concentrations and melanoma risk when subdivided by sex, age at blood collection, BMI, height, age at diagnosis, time between blood collection and diagnosis, or by anatomical site or histological subtype of the tumour (Pheterogeneity≥0.078). We found no evidence for an association between circulating concentrations of IGF-I measured in adulthood and the risk of melanoma. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Circulating Insulin-like Growth Factor-I Concentrations and Risk of 30 Cancers: Prospective Analyses in UK Biobank

“…In large pooled nested case-control studies and meta-analyses, pre-diagnostic circulating IGF-I concentrations have been shown to be positively associated with colorectal cancer (2), breast cancer (3) and prostate cancer (4) and not associated with lung cancer risk (5,6), and there is recent evidence from Mendelian randomization analyses suggesting that the positive associations may be causal (7)(8)(9). However, evidence for a role of IGF-I in the development of less common cancers is relatively limited, with some data for cancers of the esophagus (10), stomach (11), liver (12)(13)(14), biliary tract (15), pancreas (16), malignant melanoma (17), endometrium (18,19), kidney (20), bladder (21), brain (22,23), thyroid (24), and lymphoma (25). Most of the current evidence for these cancers is derived from a few prospective cohort studies, and associations with risk of cancer at some other sites, such as oral cancers and mesothelioma, have yet to be investigated in prospective analyses.…”

Association Between Melanoma Risk and Height: A Narrative Review

“…European countries did not find any significant association between circulating IGF-1 concentration measured in adulthood and melanoma risk [46]. However, these findings do not necessarily rule out the influence of IGF-1, especially during childhood, on the future risk of melanoma.…”

Adult height is associated with risk of cancer and mortality in 5.5 million Swedish women and men

“…One such growth factor is insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) which has been implicated in breast cancer biology 30. In contrast, circulating concentrations of IGF-1 measured in adulthood were recently found to not be associated with the risk of melanoma in a large international nested control study 31. Another possible explanation may be that taller individuals have a higher caloric intake, which has previously been linked with cancer 32…”