Serum Insulin-Like Growth Factor Axis and the Risk of Pancreatic Cancer: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between serum concentration of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and the risk of pancreatic cancer (PaC).

METHODS: We identified eligible studies in Medline and EMBASE databases (no reference trials from 2014 to 2016) in addition to the reference lists of original studies and review articles on this topic. A summary of relative risks with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was calculated using a random-effects model. The heterogeneity between studies was assessed using Cochran Q and I² statistics.

RESULTS: Ten studies (seven nested case-control studies and three retrospective case-control studies) were selected as they met our inclusion criteria in this meta-analysis. All these studies were published between 1997 and 2013. The current data suggested that serum concentrations of IGF-I, IGF-II and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3)in addition to the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio were not associated with an increased risk of PaC (Summary relative risks (SRRs) = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.67-1.16 for IGF-I; SRRs = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.54-1.15 for IGF-II; SRRs = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.69-1.17 for IGFBP-3; SRRs = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.71-1.23 for IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio). There was no publication bias in the present meta-analysis.

CONCLUSION: Serum concentrations of IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-3 as well as the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio were not associated with increased risk of PaC.