美国一项最新研究发现，如果体内胰岛素水平过高，妇女绝经后罹患乳腺癌的风险可能会增加。
美国爱因斯坦医学院的研究人员在23日出版的《癌症杂志》网络版上报告说，他们对5450名妇女的胰岛素水平和乳腺癌患病情况进行了分析。结果发现，体内胰岛素水平最高的妇女患乳腺癌的几率是胰岛素水平最低妇女的两倍。与体态偏胖的妇女相比，那些体态偏瘦的妇女更容易因胰岛素水平过高而罹患乳腺癌。
研究人员建议，女性在绝经后应通过适当锻炼等方式使胰岛素保持在正常水平，降低乳腺癌的发病风险。
胰岛素是一种蛋白质类激素，在调节机体糖代谢、脂肪代谢和蛋白质代谢方面发挥着重要作用。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
International Journal of Cancer 2 Jun 2009
Repeated measures of serum glucose and insulin in relation to postmenopausal breast cancer
Geoffrey C. Kabat 1 *, Mimi Kim 1, Bette J. Caan 2, Rowan T. Chlebowski 3, Marc J. Gunter 1, Gloria Y.F. Ho 1, Beatriz L. Rodriguez 4, James M. Shikany 5, Howard D. Strickler 1, Mara Z. Vitolins 6, Thomas E. Rohan 1
1Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
2Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, Oakland, CA
3Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA
4Department of Medicine, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI
5Division of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
6Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, NC
Experimental and epidemiological evidence suggests that circulating glucose and insulin may play a role in breast carcinogenesis. However, few cohort studies have examined breast cancer risk in association with glucose and insulin levels, and studies to date have had only baseline measurements of exposure. We conducted a longitudinal study of postmenopausal breast cancer risk using the 6% random sample of women in the Women's Health Initiative clinical trials whose fasting blood samples, provided at baseline and at years 1, 3 and 6, were analyzed for glucose and insulin. In addition, a 1% sample of women in the observational study, who had glucose and insulin measured in fasting blood samples drawn at baseline and in year 3, were included in the analysis. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association of baseline and follow-up measurements of serum glucose and insulin with breast cancer risk. All statistical tests were 2-sided. Among 5,450 women with baseline serum glucose and insulin values, 190 incident cases of breast cancer were ascertained over a median of 8.0 years of follow-up. The highest tertile of baseline insulin, relative to the lowest, was associated with a 2-fold increase in risk in the total population (multivariable hazard ratio 2.22, 95% confidence interval 1.39-3.53) and with a 3-fold increase in risk in women who were not enrolled in the intervention arm of any clinical trial (multivariable hazard ratio 3.15, 95% confidence interval 1.61-6.17). Glucose levels showed no association with risk. Analysis of the repeated measurements supported the results of the baseline analysis. These data suggest that elevated serum insulin levels may be a risk factor for postmenopausal breast cancer.
