The Effect and Mechanism of Action of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 and Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein-3 in Human Breast Cancer; A Systematic Review

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. Many factors such as estrogens، nutrition، etc. play role in the incidence of this cancer. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) are the factors recently considered as components of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system. Studies in this field from 1987 to 2012 by using the databases of NCBI (http: //www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/) were analyzed and reviewed 1181 article had examined the effect of IGF-1 in breast cancer. 46 showed a direct association with breast cancer. 92 articles were studied relation of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 with breast cancer، 9 of them were review articles. Of these، 30 articles were selected as the main references. Studies have shown that IGF-1 gene expression increases in breast cancer. IGF-1 effects in growth، proliferation and tumor genesis is mediated by IGF-1R. IGFBP3 inhibit IGF-1 effects by preventing its binding to a surface receptor (IGF-1R) and interferes with IGF-1 mitoses action. Also، in a mechanism independent on IGF، IGFBP-3 binds to specific membrane proteins and induces apoptosis and inhibits cell growth.