Renehan Andrew G, Harvie Michelle, Howell Anthony
Department of Surgery, Christie Hospital NHS Trust, Wilmslow Road, Manchester M20 4BX, UK.
Endocr Relat Cancer. 2006 Jun;13(2):273-8. doi: 10.1677/erc.1.01219.
Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I, and its main binding protein, IGFBP-3, are multi-functional regulatory peptides of cell growth and survival, attributes important for tumourigenesis. Following seminal work published in 1998, it has been hypothesised that circulating concentrations of these growth factors may be associated with cancer risk. Systematic reviews have reported that high normal range circulating levels of total IGF-I predict for pre- but not post-menopausal breast cancer. By contrast, associations with circulating IGFBP-3 have been inconsistent. A cumulative meta-analysis demonstrates that earlier reported positive associations between IGFBP-3 and pre-menopausal breast cancer risk now seem less clear as large-size cohorts are published. The reasons are complex and include differences in study design, lack of standardisation between assays, and variations in IGFBP-3 proteolytic activity--these are discussed in this commentary.
胰岛素样生长因子（IGF）-I及其主要结合蛋白IGFBP-3是细胞生长和存活的多功能调节肽，这些特性对肿瘤发生至关重要。自1998年发表开创性研究成果以来，人们一直推测这些生长因子的循环浓度可能与癌症风险相关。系统评价报告称，总IGF-I处于正常范围的高水平可预测绝经前而非绝经后乳腺癌。相比之下，IGFBP-3与癌症的相关性并不一致。一项累积荟萃分析表明，随着大型队列研究的发表，先前报道的IGFBP-3与绝经前乳腺癌风险之间的正相关关系现在似乎不那么明确了。原因很复杂，包括研究设计的差异、检测方法之间缺乏标准化以及IGFBP-3蛋白水解活性的变化——本评论将对此进行讨论。
