Abstract
Recent epidemiological studies have shown that high serum levels of insulin‐like growth factor‐I (IGF‐I) are associated with an increased risk of lung, colon, breast and prostate cancer. Since very few studies have addressed the role of serum levels of IGF‐I in the development of pancreatic cancer, we conducted a nested case‐control study to examine this association. The analysis involved 69 case subjects who died from pancreatic cancer during the follow‐up period of the study, and 207 control subjects matched for sex, age(±1 year) and study area, selected randomly from a cohort of 10,364 individuals. Serum levels of IGF‐I and IGF binding protein‐3 (IGFBP‐3) were measured by immunoradiometric assay, using commercially available kits. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using conditional logistic models. The levels of IGF‐I were positively correlated with IGFBP‐3 (r=0.55). There was a positive, but statistically insignificant association between serum levels of IGF‐I and risk of death from pancreatic cancer, with subjects in the highest quartile having an OR of 2.31 (95% CI=0.70–2.64) compared to those in the lowest quartile. The risk of pancreatic cancer death increased significantly with increasing serum levels of IGFBP‐3 (trend p=0.03). Further adjustment for IGFBP‐3 or IGF‐I slightly attenuated the positive associations. This nested case‐control study showed that high serum levels of IGF‐I and IGFBP‐3 may be associated with an increased risk of death from pancreatic cancer. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.