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Adiponectin and Breast Cancer Risk

Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (C.M.), Boston, Massachusetts 02215; Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Athens University Medical School (E.P., N.D., C.C., M.D., D.M.A., D.T.), Athens 11527, Greece; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health (E.P., D.T.), Boston, Massachusetts 02115; Elena Venizelou Hospital (Y.P.), Athens 11521, Greece; Breast Unit, Second Department of Propedeutic Surgery, Athens University Medical School (C.M.), Athens 11527, Greece; BIOMED, International Diagnostic Center (E.S.), Athens 11528, Greece; Pediatric and Reproductive Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health (G.C.), Bethesda, Maryland 20892; and First Department of Pediatrics, Ag. Sophia Children’s Hospital, Athens University Medical School (G.C.), Athens 11527, Greece

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Eleni Petridou, M.D., Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Athens University Medical School, 75 Mikras Asias, Goudi, Athens 115-27, Greece. E-mail: epetrid{at}med.uoa.gr.

Adiponectin, an adipocyte-secreted hormone, is closely and inversely associated with insulin resistance and was recently found to be inversely and independently associated with endometrial cancer. Because insulin resistance in the setting of obesity has also been associated with the development of breast cancer, we have hypothesized that decreased adiponectin levels might underlie the association between breast cancer and obesity/insulin resistance. We evaluated the association of adiponectin with the occurrence of breast cancer in a case-control study comprising 174 women with newly diagnosed, histologically confirmed breast cancer and 167 controls. We found an inverse, fairly strong, and statistically significant association of serum adiponectin with breast cancer (odds ratio, 0.84; 95% confidence interval, 0.71–0.99). Importantly, despite a fairly robust inverse association of adiponectin with breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women (odds ratio, 0.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.67–1.00), no such significant association between adiponectin and breast cancer was found among premenopausal women. The observed associations were independent of possible effects of major components of the IGF system, leptin, body mass index, sociodemographic variables, and known risk factors for breast cancer. Future studies are needed to prove causality and provide further insights into both the mechanisms underlying the actions of this hormone and its potential role in breast cancer.

Abbreviations: BMI, Body mass index; CI, confidence interval; IGFBP-3, IGF-binding protein-3; OR, odds ratio; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor.

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