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Short Communication |
1 Unité de recherche en santé des populations and 2 Centre des maladies du sein Deschênes-Fabia, Centre hospitalier affilié universitaire de Québec; 3 Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Laval University; 4 Clinique Radiologique Audet, Quebec, Quebec, Canada; 5 Departments of Medicine and Oncology, Cancer Prevention Research Unit, Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University, Montréal, Canada; 6 Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia; 7 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Public Health Sciences Division, Seattle, Washington; 8 Institut national de santé publique du Québec et Centre de recherche, Hôpital Charles LeMoyne, Greenfield, Quebec, Canada; and 9 Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Requests for reprints: Jacques Brisson, Unité de recherche en santé des populations Centre hospitalier affilié universitaire de Québec, Hôpital Saint-Sacrement, 1050 Chemin Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Canada G1S 4L8. Phone: 418-682-7392; Fax: 418-682-7949. E-mail: jacques.brisson{at}uresp.ulaval.ca
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Laboratory studies suggest that insulin, like its related growth factors, may exert a mitogenic effect on both normal and neoplastic breast epithelial cells (1, 2). Several epidemiologic studies (4-9), but not all (10-15), have shown that high circulating levels of insulin or C-peptide were associated with increased breast cancer risk in premenopausal and/or postmenopausal women. Lately, levels of C-peptide, among postmenopausal women, have been associated with risk of benign breast hyperplasia (15), a histologic change known to be related with breast cancer risk (16).
The extent of mammographic breast density has been repeatedly associated with benign breast diseases, including epithelial hyperplasia, in addition to being strongly associated with increased breast cancer risk (17). The breast is composed essentially of epithelial and stromal tissue and fat. By definition, mammographic breast density reflects the proportion of the breast occupied by epithelial and/or stromal tissue; in addition, factors such as hormones and insulin-like growth factors are believed to influence this proportion (18, 19). Recently, a negative association of fasting insulin levels with breast density was observed among premenopausal women with CYP17 A1 allele (20). Moreover, high levels of insulin and diabetes were associated with low breast density in premenopausal women (21, 22). The purpose of this study was to examine the association of C-peptide levels with mammographic breast density among healthy women recruited during screening mammography examinations.
| Materials and Methods |
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Data Collection
At time of the mammography, women were measured wearing no shoes and in light clothing by a trained research nurse using standard procedures. Measurements included weight (kg), height (cm), and waist and hip circumferences (cm). From these measurements, the body mass index [BMI (kg/m2); an indicator of body fat] and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR; an indicator of abdominal fat) were calculated. Blood samples were also taken (20 mL), and fasting status was recorded as the number of hours since last meal. Anthropometric measures and blood sampling occurred at time of the mammography for >95% of the subjects. Information on potential breast cancer risk factors was collected during a telephone interview and included menstrual and reproductive histories, family history of breast cancer, personal history of breast biopsies, past use of hormonal derivatives, smoking status, alcohol intake, and education. The Nurses' Health Study II Activity and Inactivity Questionnaire (24) and the semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (97GP copyrighted at Harvard University) were used to estimate physical activity and dietary intake, respectively, during the year preceding the mammography.
All mammograms were scanned at 260 µm/pixel with a Kodak Lumiscan85 digitizer. Then, for each woman, mammographic breast density (%) and absolute area of dense tissue (absolute density, cm2) were assessed by one trained author (C.D.) from the craniocaudal view of a randomly chosen breast. This assessment was done without any information on women using a computer-assisted method developed by one of us (M.Y.) and described elsewhere (25). In this study, the within-batch intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.98 and 0.98, the between-batch coefficients of variation were 4% and 5%, and the intraclass correlation coefficients between the right and left breasts were 0.95 and 0.93 for percent breast density and absolute density measurements, respectively.
Blood collection and sample storage conditions have been previously described (19). Time between blood donation and blood constituents' storage was <3 hours for almost all subjects. Under the supervision of one of us (M.P.), C-peptide was assayed without any information on women by ELISA method with reagents from Diagnostic Systems Laboratory (Webster, TX). The intrabatch and interbatch coefficients of variation from blinded split samples randomly included in the analytic runs were 7.7% and 4.6%, respectively.
Statistical Methods
Associations between continuous levels of C-peptide, continuous measures of breast density, and continuous measures of anthropometric factors were evaluated with the Spearman correlation coefficients (rs). Breast density was square root transformed to normalize its skewed distribution. Then, multivariate-adjusted means breast density were assessed according to quartiles of C-peptide (
1.324, 1.325-2.143, 2.144-3.497, >3.497 ng/mL) using generalized linear models. Results are presented as back-transformed values.
In the present analysis, factors included as confounders (covariates 1) or as potential confounders (covariates 2) in multivariate models are described in each table legend. Associations of BMI and WHR with C-peptide levels and breast density were investigated (Table 1) to show that these two measures of adiposity have independent effects; therefore, both should be considered as confounders in models evaluating the association between C-peptide levels and breast density. All continuous variables were examined in categories before they were included as continuous variables in final models. Levels of C-peptide were negatively associated with the number of hours since last meal if last meal was taken in
5 hours (rs = 0.375, P < 0.0001) but not after 5 hours (rs = 0.034, P = 0.62); therefore, hours since last meal was included as a categorical variable (
2, >2 to 3, >3 to 4, >4 to 5, >5 hours) in the analysis. All statistical analyses were carried out using the SAS (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC) software system. Statistical significance was based on two-sided P values.
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| Results |
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Body fat (BMI) and abdominal fat (WHR) were independently associated with levels of C-peptide (Table 1). Age-adjusted and time since last mealadjusted (covariates 1) positive correlation between levels of C-peptide and BMI or WHR was statistically significant, even after adjustment for WHR or BMI (rs = 0.173 and rs = 0.252, respectively; P < 0.0001). These measures of body and abdominal fat were also independently associated with mammographic breast density (Table 1). Breast density was negatively correlated with BMI or WHR, and these age-adjusted (covariates 1) negative correlations were also statistically significant when both variables were included in the model simultaneously (rs = 0.389 and rs = 0.142, for BMI and WHR, respectively; P < 0.0001). Addition of several potential confounders (covariates 2) into these models did not substantially alter the results. Although BMI and WHR are correlated (rs = 0.554, P < 0.0001), models including both factors revealed no multicolinearity problem.
Table 2 shows that correlation between C-peptide levels and breast density varied by type of adjustment. Age-adjusted and time since last mealadjusted mean breast density was lower by ascending quartiles of C-peptide, and the multivariate-adjusted correlation was statistically significant (rs = 0.210, P < 0.0001). This multivariate-adjusted correlation of C-peptide with breast density remained statistically significant after further adjustment were made for BMI (rs = 0.057, P = 0.03) or WHR (rs = 0.086, P = 0.0008) separately. However, after simultaneous adjustment for both BMI and WHR, C-peptide levels were no longer statistically correlated with breast density (rs = 0.022, P = 0.41). Results were similar when several potential confounders (covariates 2) were inserted into these models.
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After adjustment for covariates 2, BMI and WHR, little or no correlation between C-peptide levels and percent breast density or absolute density was observed among premenopausal (rs = 0.034, P = 0.37 and rs = 0.058, P = 0.12 for n = 736) or postmenopausal (rs = 0.003, P = 0.94 and rs = 0.003, P = 0.93 for n = 738) women separately, or among women who had their last meal for >5 hours ago (rs = 0.049, P = 0.51 and rs = 0.027, P = 0.71 for n = 208).
| Discussion |
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The major strengths of this study include the reliability of both mammographic breast density and C-peptide measurements, the assessment of several factors potentially related to breast density and/or C-peptide, and the relatively large sample size. Nonetheless, our findings have to be interpreted with caution because they are based on a single nonfasting plasma measurement of C-peptide, which might not reflect long-term circulating C-peptide concentrations particularly among diabetes (3). Insulin secretion and C-peptide levels increase after a meal. However, all models were adjusted for the number of hours since last meal. Moreover, our conclusions were unchanged when the analysis was restricted to women who had their last meal for >5 hours ago. In the present study, women with diabetes mellitus at time of the study entry were not eligible.
Our results are consistent with several studies that reported a strong correlation of high BMI and WHR with high levels of C-peptide (1-3). Hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance have been proposed as a possible biological mechanism by which adiposity could affect breast cancer risk and prognosis (1, 2). However, high insulin or C-peptide levels have been associated with increase breast cancer risk independently of BMI (4, 6-9), WHR (4, 6) and weight (5). Moreover, in a prospective study of nondiabetic early-stage breast cancer patients, high fasting insulin levels were found to be associated with an increased risk of death after adjustment for BMI (26). Whether further adjustment for WHR (or other measures of adiposity) would affect some of these associations needs to be clarified. Insulin may affect breast cancer risk and prognosis through its mitogenic and antiapoptotic effects on normal breast epithelial cells and its promoting effect on tumor growth and development suggested by animal models of carcinogenesis (1, 2).
In conclusion, increasing C-peptide may be related to an elevation of breast cancer risk but, if so, our study suggests that such a relation would not involve breast density because breast density seems unrelated to C-peptide independently from adiposity. Thus, C-peptide levels and breast density seem to be two independent risk factors for breast cancer.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Received 6/21/05; revised 8/16/05; accepted 9/ 1/05.
| References |
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(CYP17) gene and risk factors for breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2004;88:21730.[CrossRef][Medline]
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