CORRESPONDENCE

RESPONSE: Re: Prospective Study of Colorectal Cancer Risk in Men and Plasma Levels of Insulin-Like Growth Factor (IGF)-I and IGF-Binding Protein-3

Jing Ma, Edward Giovannucci, Michael Pollak, Meir Stampfer

Affiliations of authors: J. Ma, Department of Medicine, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; E. Giovannucci, Department of Medicine, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston; M. Pollak, Department of Medicine, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health; M. Stampfer, Department of Medicine, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, and Cancer Prevention Research Unit, Departments of Medicine and Oncology, Lady Davis Research Institute of the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Correspondence to: Jing Ma, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Medicine, Channing Laboratory. Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115.

In a cross-sectional analysis, Renehan et al. found no statistically significant associations of plasma insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-3 with colorectal adenomas detected on flexible sigmoidoscopy screening. Their observation is somewhat consistent with our findings in a cohort of U.S. women among whom high plasma levels of IGF-I and low levels of IGFBP-3 were statistically significantly associated with risk of colorectal cancer, nonsignificantly associated with "high-risk" (>=1 cm or tubulovillous/villous histology) adenomas and not associated with "low-risk" (<1 cm and tubular histology) adenomas (1).

As Renehan et al. note, their overall study provides insufficient statistical power to yield precise estimates of risk. Further studies of this issue are necessary and are in progress.

REFERENCE

1 Giovannucci E, Pollak MN, Platz EA, Willett WC, Stampfer MJ, Majeed N, et al. Plasma insulin-like growth factor and binding protein-3 and risk of colorectal cancer and adenomas in women. AACR 90th Annual Meeting Scientific Proceedings 1999. No. 1399.


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