Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 gene polymorphism and breast cancer risk

• Main Authors: DANYLO R. COSTA-SILVA, MARIA DA CONCEIÇÃO BARROS-OLIVEIRA, RAFAEL S. BORGES, CLÉCITON B. TAVARES, UMBELINA S. BORGES, FRANCISCO A. ALVES-RIBEIRO, VLADIMIR C. SILVA, BENEDITO B. DA SILVA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academia Brasileira de Ciências
• Series: Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências
• Subjects: Breast cancer; risk factors; IGF-1; IGF-1 gene polymorphism
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652016005020107&lng=en&tlng=en

ABSTRACT Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) gene polymorphism has been associated with an increased risk for breast cancer. IGF-1 is a key regulator of proliferation, cell differentiation and apoptosis. It has important mitogenic and anti-apoptotic activities in normal cells and in breast cancer cells, acting synergistically with estrogen to increase neoplastic cell proliferation. This review aims to present the recent finds of IGF-1 gene polymorphism and its relationship with the risk of breast cancer through following the polymorphic dinucleotide repeat cytosine-adenine (CA) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) by searching in the PubMed database publications focused studies published from 2010 to 2015 related to IGF-1 gene polymorphism and breast cancer risk. A growing number of studies support an association between IGF-1 gene polymorphism and breast cancer risk with conflicting results, nevertheless elucidation of the patterns of IGF-1 gene expression may permit characterization of women at high-risk for breast cancer, as well as the development of strategies for early diagnosis and efficient treatment against the disease.