Glioma risk in relation to serum levels of insulin-like growth factors.

Several studies have suggested that insulin-like growth factors (IGF) are related to cancer risk. We investigated the associations between serum levels of IGF-I and IGF-binding protein-3 and glioma risk. A nested case-control study was conducted within a cancer prevention study, including 29,133 men (ages 50-69 years). In total, 22 glioma cases and 400 randomly selected controls were included. Serum samples were collected a minimum of 5 years before cancer diagnosis. Serum concentrations were measured using ELISA and divided into tertiles based on measurements among controls. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using the lowest tertile as the reference category. No statistical association was detected between glioma and IGF-binding protein-3. IGF-I was inversely associated with glioma when comparing the lowest tertile with the other tertiles combined (odds ratio, 0.3; 95% confidence interval, 0.1-0.7). The results encourage future research on IGFs in relation to brain tumors in larger studies.