Background: As cellular proliferation is central to the carcinogenic process, pathways that regulate proliferation may be important. Therefore, genes in the insulin and the insulin-like growth factor signaling pathways are plausible candidates for susceptibility genes for prostate cancer. We hypothesized that functional polymorphisms in INS, IRS1, IRS2, and IGF1 may be associated with prostate cancer.
Methods: We studied 199 incident prostate cancer cases and 267 age-matched controls. Genotyping was performed for the INS +1127 Ins-PstI, IRS1 G972R, IRS2 G1079D, and the IGF1 CA-repeat polymorphisms. Outcomes were prostate cancer, Gleason score, and AJCC stage.
Results: The IRS1 G972R GR/RR genotypes were associated with a significant 2.8-fold increased risk for prostate cancer (95% CI 1.5-5.1, P = 0.0007). The other variants were not significantly associated with prostate cancer. The IRS1 G972R GR/RR genotypes were also significantly associated with more advanced Gleason score (P = 0.001) and AJCC stage (P = 0.004).
Conclusions: These results support a role of the insulin and/or insulin-like growth factor pathways in the etiology of prostate cancer.
(c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.