Insulin-like growth factor 1 in hepatocellular carcinoma and metastatic liver cancer in men

The insulin-like growth factor (ICF) axis has important autocrine, paracrin e, and endocrine roles in the promotion of growth. Alterations of the IGF s ystem have recently been implicated in the pathogenesis of several malignan cies, but the relation to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk is unclear. T o address this issue, we used an immunoradiometric assay to quantify IGF-I levels in serum samples in a hospital-based, case-control study in Greece. The study subjects were all men and included 53 patients with HCC positive for hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C virus infections, 20 virus-negative HCC patients, 25 virus-negative patients with metastatic liver cancer (MLC), an d I I I virus-negative control subjects. Data were analyzed by multiple lin ear regression, using IGF-I as the dependent variable. The mean value of IG F-I was 65.9 ng/ml among virus-positive HCC patients, 79.5 ng/ml among viru s-negative HCC patients, 110.8 ng/ml among patients with MLC, and 174.7 ng/ ml among hospital controls. After controlling for the degree of liver damag e, as assessed by prothrombin time and serum albumin level, the reduction i n IGF-I level among HCC patients was found to be more than could be attribu ted to liver damage alone. This finding may have both diagnostic and pathop hysiological implications. Int. J. Cancer 87:118-121, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley- Liss, Inc.