Basal growth hormone concentrations in blood and the risk for prostate cancer: A case-control study

Barbara Fuhrman, Maddalena Barba, Holger J. Schünemann, Thelma Hurd, Teresa Quattrin, Ruben Cartagena, Giuseppe Carruba, Paola Muti*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

OBJECTIVE. To assess the relationship between basal serum growth hormone (GH) levels and prostate cancer risk. METHODS. We conducted a population-based case-control study; cases included 68 men, aged 45-85 years, diagnosed with incident, primary, histologically confirmed, and clinically apparent (stage B and higher) prostate cancer. Controls included 240 men, frequency matched on age and residential area. Age, race, BMI, waist circumference, history of enlarged prostate, education, and current smoking status, were all considered as possible confounders. RESULTS. We found a statistically significant trend of decreasing prostate cancer risk across increasing GH quintiles, in both crude (OR: 0.31, 95% CI: 0.12-0.83, P for trend 0.01) and adjusted models (OR: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.12-1.05, P for trend 0.03), in the highest compared to the lowest quintile, respectively. CONCLUSIONS. Lower basal levels of GH in serum are associated with increased prostate cancer risk. The inverse association may be explained by the negative feedback loop generated by IGF-1 produced by the tumor on GH secretion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)109-115
Number of pages7
JournalProstate
Volume64
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2005
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Epidemiological studies
  • Growth hormone
  • Prostate cancer

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