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Insulin-like Growth Factors and Ovarian Cancer Risk: A Nested Case-Control Study in Three Cohorts

¹ Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, and ² Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School; ³ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; and ⁴ Department of Medical Oncology, McGill University, Quebec, Canada

Requests for reprints: Shelley S. Tworoger, Channing Laboratory, 3rd Floor, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. Phone: 617-525-2087; Fax: 617-525-2008. E-mail: nhsst{at}channing.harvard.edu

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)–related hormones and binding proteins (IGFBP) have been implicated in cancer risk. Specifically, two recent, small prospective studies reported a significant positive association between IGF-I and ovarian cancer risk among women diagnosed before age 55 years. Therefore, we examined whether plasma concentrations of IGF-I, IGFBP-3, and IGFBP-2 were associated with risk of epithelial ovarian cancer in a nested case-control study using data from three prospective cohorts: the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), NHSII, and the Women's Health Study (WHS). The present study had 222 cases (159 from NHS/NHSII and 63 from WHS) and 599 controls (matching ratio, 1:3 for NHS/NHSII and 1:2 for WHS). Women ranged in age from 34 to 73 years (mean, 56 years). The relative risk (RR) comparing the top versus bottom quartile of IGF-I was 0.56 (95% confidence interval, 0.32-0.97; P_trend = 0.14). The risk did not differ by age at diagnosis (comparable RR for age <55 years at diagnosis, 0.70; RR for age 55 years at diagnosis, 0.52). We did not observe any association between IGFBP-3, IGFBP-2, and the ratio of IGF-I to either binding protein and ovarian cancer risk. Overall, our results do not support a positive association between IGF-related proteins and ovarian cancer risk. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(8):1691–5)