A Systematic Review: Does Insulin Resistance Affect the Risk and Survival Outcome of Breast Cancer in Women?

Currently, breast cancer is one of the insidious malignancies that evolves silently, eventually leading to mortality, and has been recorded as one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths around the globe. It is evident from numerous research studies that the etiology of breast cancer is multifaceted, both on an individual and environmental level. Insulin resistance, commonly known as metabolic syndrome, has been related to a poor breast cancer prognosis. There is presently limited data on the clinical features of insulin-resistant breast cancer patients. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between metabolic syndrome and its components impacting the risk and the prognosis of breast cancer, including the clinicopathological variables in patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer with and without already established diabetes. The authors extracted data from PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Embase, intending to study the connections between these two entities. Studies from worldwide were selected to analyze the association between breast cancer and insulin resistance, including mammogram screening practices in a region-wise manner. The ultimate objective is to raise awareness of this association among practitioners worldwide. After analyzing several reports that included observational studies, it is to be concluded that insulin resistance impacts breast cancer both in regards to increasing the risk as well as affecting the survival outcome.