This summary table contains detailed information about research studies. While viewing summary tables offers an informative glimpse at the science behind many breast cancer guidelines and recommendations, they should be viewed with some caution. There are a number of concepts you must understand to be able to successfully read and interpret research tables. To get some background information about understanding research tables, please see How to Read a Research Table.
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Introduction: Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is a hormone produced by the body. It plays an important role in growth and development. Although it is vital to human health, there is a growing body of evidence that IGF-1 may be linked to breast cancer. Results from two large nested case-control studies and two pooled analyses suggest that higher blood levels of IGF-1 might increase the risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women. However, the data overall remain inconsistent. Much more research is needed to understand the role that IGF-1 and similar hormones, like prolactin, play in breast cancer development. Another issue is the current lack of a standard for analyzing the blood levels of hormones like IGF-1. Until there is an agreed-upon standard measure, the results from future studies are likely to remain mixed.
Find more information on the strengths and weaknesses of different types of studies.
See how this risk factor compares with other risk factors for breast cancer.
Study selection criteria: Available nested case-control studies and pooled analyses.
Table note: Relative risk above 1 indicates increased risk. Relative risk below 1 indicates decreased risk.
Study
|
Study Population
(number of participants)
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Relative Risk of Breast Cancer in Women with Higher versus Lower IGF-1 Levels,
RR (95% CI)
|
Nested case-control studies
|
| |
Cases
|
Controls
|
Premenopausal
|
Postmenopausal
|
EPIC [1]
|
1,081
|
2,098
|
1.03 (0.60-1.77)
|
1.38 (1.02-1.86)
|
Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study [2]
|
835 |
816 |
|
1.21 (0.85-1.72) |
Nurses' Health Study II [3]
|
800
|
1,129
|
1.6 (1.0-2.5)
|
1.0 (0.7-1.4)
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Kaaks et al. [4]
|
513
|
987
|
0.63 (0.29-1.39)
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1.29 (0.80-2.07)
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Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study [5]
|
423
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1,901
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0.83 (0.49-1.38)
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1.59 (1.03-2.44)
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Gronbaek et al. [6]
|
411
|
397
|
|
0.97 (0.87-1.08)
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Nurses' Health Study [7]
|
397
|
620
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2.88 (1.21-6.85)
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0.89 (0.51-1.55)
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| Vatten et al. [8] |
325 |
647 |
1.46 (0.93-2.32) |
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Toniolio et al. [9]
|
287
|
706
|
1.90 (0.82-4.42)
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0.95 (0.49-1.86)
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Rinaldi et al. [10]
|
220
|
434
|
1.41 (0.75-2.63)
|
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Rollison et al. [11]
|
202
|
202
|
1.60 (0.85-3.02)
|
1.55 (0.61-3.94)
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Keinan-Boker et al. [12]
|
149
|
333
|
|
0.7 (0.3-1.5)
|
Krajcik et al. [13]
|
126
|
126
|
2.01 (0.33-12.40)
|
1.22 (0.21-6.78)
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Muti et al. [14]
|
133
|
503
|
3.12 (1.13-8.60)
|
0.58 (0.24-1.36)
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Allen et al. [15]
|
117
|
350
|
1.71 (0.74-3.95)
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0.73 (0.29-1.84)
|
Pooled analysis
|
Renehan et al. [4,6,9,13,16]
|
3,609
|
7,137
|
1.93 (1.38-2.69)
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0.95 (0.62-1.33)
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Shi et al. [17]
|
779 premenopausal
911 postmenopausal
|
1,306 premenopausal
1,552 postmenopausal
|
1.38 (1.13-1.69)
|
1.02 (0.77-1.36)
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Sugumar et al. [18]
|
688
|
1,366
|
1.74 (0.97-3.13)
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References
1. Rinaldi S, Peeters PH, Berrino F, et al. IGF-I, IGFBP-3 and breast cancer risk in women: The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Endocr Relat Cancer. 13(2):593-605, 2006.
2. Gunter MJ, Hoover DR, Yu H, et al. Insulin, insulin-like growth factor-I, and risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. J Natl Cancer Inst. 101(1):48-60, 2009.
3. Schernhammer ES, Holly JM, Pollak MN, Hankinson SE. Circulating levels of insulin-like growth factors, their binding proteins, and breast cancer risk. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 14(3):699-704, 2005.
4. Kaaks R, Lundin E, Manjer J, et al. Prospective study of IGF-I, IGF-binding proteins, and breast cancer risk, in Northern and Southern Sweden. Cancer Causes Controls. 13:307-316, 2002.
5. Baglietto L, English DR, Hopper JL, Morris HA, Tilley WD, Giles GG. Circulating insulin-like growth factor-I and binding protein-3 and the risk of breast cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 16(4):763-8, 2007.
6. Gronbaek H, Flyvbjerg A, Mellemkjaer L, et al. Serum insulin-like growth factors, insulin-like growth factor binding proteins, and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 13(11 Pt 1):1759-64, 2004.
7. Hankinson SE, Willett WC, Colditz GA, et al. Circulating concentrations of insulin-like growth factor-I and risk of breast cancer. Lancet. 351:1393-1396, 1998.
8. Vatten LJ, Holly JM, Gunnell D, Tretli S. Nested case-control study of the association of circulating levels of serum insulin-like growth factor I and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 with breast cancer in young women in Norway. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 17(8):2097-100, 2008.
9. Toniolo P, Bruning PF, Akhmedkhanov A, et al. Serum insulin-like growth factor-I and breast cancer. Int J Cancer. 88(5):828-832, 2000.
10. Rinaldi S, Toniolo P, Muti P, et al. IGF-I, IGFBP-3 and breast cancer in young women: a pooled re-analysis of three prospective studies. Eur J Cancer Prev. 14(6):493-6, 2005.
11. Rollison DE, Newschaffer CJ, Tao Y, Pollak M, Helzlsouer KJ. Premenopausal levels of circulating insulin-like growth factor I and the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Int J Cancer. 118(5):1279-84, 2006.
12. Keinan-Boker L, Bueno De Mesquita HB, Kaaks R, Van Gils CH, Van Noord PA, Rinaldi S, Riboli E, Seidell JC, Grobbee DE, Peeters PH. Circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor I, its binding proteins –1,-2,-3, C-peptide and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Int J Cancer. 106(1):90-5, 2003.
13. Muti, P, Quattrin T, Grant, BJ et al. Fasting glucose is a risk factor for breast cancer: a prospective study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 11(11):1361-8, 2002.
14. Krajcik RA, Borofsky ND, Massardo S, Orentreich N. Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), IGF-binding proteins, and breast cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 11(12):1566-73, 2002.
15. Allen NE, Roddam AW, Fentiman IS, et al. A prospective study of serum insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), IGF-II, IGF-binding protein-3 and breast cancer risk. Br J Cancer. 92(7):1283-7, 2005.
16. Renehan AG, Zwahlen M, Minder C, O’Dwyer ST, Shalet SM, Egger M. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I, IGF binding protein-3, and cancer risk: systematic review and meta-regression analysis. Lancet. 363(9418):1346-7, 2004.
17. Shi R, Yu H, McLarty J, Glass J. IGF-I and breast cancer: a meta-analysis. Int J Cancer. 111(3):418-23, 2004.
18. Sugumar A, Liu YC, Xia Q, et al. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and IGF-binding protein 3 and the risk of premenopausal breast cancer: a meta-analysis of literature. Int J Cancer. 111(2):293-7, 2004.
Updated 09/12/09
