Serum insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I, IGF binding protein (IGFBP)-3, leptin concentrations and insulin resistance in benign and malignant epithelial ovarian tumors in postmenopausal women

Abstract

Serum leptin and HOMA score have not been found to be valid indicators in ovarian tumors. However, the present data suggest that low concentrations of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 could be a reliable marker to differentiate benign from malignant ovarian tumors. Further experimental studies are warranted to understand the impact of the IGF-I system in ovarian carcinogenesis.

Does IGF-1 play a role in the biology of ovarian cancer?

“…One might speculate that most of the 59 subjects were in fact postmenopausal at the time of blood collection, which would have significantly affected the final results. No significant correlations between the level of serum free IGF-1 in OC women and clinical and pathological parameters were found, which is consistent with all publications included in the study [10][11][12][25][26][27][28][29][30].…”

“…This hypothesis is therefore not an ideal explanation for the association between elevated serum IGF-1 levels and an increased risk for OC in young women. Lower serum IGF-1 levels in OC patients as compared to women with benign tumors and/or non-tumor women have also been reported by some authors [25][26][27][28][29]. Other researchers did not observe any statistically significant differences in serum IGF-1 levels in OC women as compared to non-cancer patients, and did not report any higher serum IGF-1-dependent risk for the development of OC [12,30].…”

“…It cannot be ruled out that OC women were more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases. As a result, the reported lower serum IGF-1 levels in OC patients did not result de facto from this pathology but a comorbid cardiovascular disease [25,26,29]. Moreover, Flyvbjerg et al, did not include data on BMI, diabetes mellitus (DM), and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in their publication [25], which questions the reliability of the results, given the fact that both, BMI and DM have a proven effect on serum IGF-1 level [33,34].…”

“…Unfortunately, the level of serum IGF-1 is influenced by numerous factors both, genetic and exogenous, such as diet, exercise, medication, BMI, chronic diseases (DM, cardiovascular and other), and age [14,15,29,[31][32][33][34][35]37]. In addition, not all factors which influence the regulation of serum IGF-1 have been fully elucidated.…”

Screening for Multiple Autoantibodies in Plasma of Patients with Breast Cancer

“…It was found that the serum levels of adiponectin, RES, and plasminogen activator inhibitor are not significantly different between women with ovarian carcinoma, borderline or benign tumor (78). Conflicting results have been reported with regards to the diagnostic value of circulating adipokines in ovarian cancer (79)(80)(81). Our previous study showed that resistin autoantibody levels are lower in the test group versus the reference group (Table I) (8).…”