SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Genitourinary Oncology
This article is part of the Research TopicHistological and Molecular Subtypes of Prostate Cancer: Biology, Biomarkers, and Therapeutic ImplicationsView all 6 articles
Serum Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 and Epidemiological Evidence of the Risk of Prostate Cancer
Provisionally accepted
- Zhongjiang People's Hospital, Zhongjiang, China
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Objective: To systematically evaluate the epidemiological association between serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-I) levels and the risk of prostate cancer, in order to provide evidence-based support for risk stratification and early prevention of prostate cancer. Methods: In accordance with the PRISMA statement, major domestic and international databases were systematically searched. Cohort studies, case-control studies, and Mendelian randomization studies reporting the relationship between serum IGF-I and prostate cancer risk were included. A random-effects model was used to combine effect estimates, assess heterogeneity, and perform subgroup analysis and meta-regression. Sensitivity analysis and publication bias tests were used to evaluate the robustness of the results, and the GRADE system was used to assess the quality of evidence. Results: A total of 16 studies involving multiple countries were included. The combined analysis showed that higher serum IGF-I levels were associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer (OR=1.10, 95% CI: 1.02–1.18, P=0.0136), with moderate heterogeneity (I²=50.6%). Subgroup analysis indicated that the association was more prominent in studies published in the last decade and in nested case-control designs, but heterogeneity was higher in large-sample and multicenter studies. Meta-regression analysis did not find that mean age or IGF-I levels significantly explained the heterogeneity. Sensitivity and publication bias analyses both supported the robustness of the main conclusion, and the GRADE assessment indicated moderate quality of evidence. Conclusion: Higher serum IGF-I levels are epidemiologically associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, but the dose-response relationship is still unclear, and the correlation is susceptible to study characteristics and confounding factors. IGF-I is expected to be a potential biomarker for prostate cancer risk stratification. It is recommended that more high-quality studies be conducted in the future to verify its clinical application value. Registration Information: This study has been registered in PROSPERO (Registration No.: CRD420251174259).
Keywords: biomarker, Epidemiology, insulin-like growth factor-1, Meta-analysis, prostate cancer, Risk Assessment
Received: 22 Oct 2025; Accepted: 19 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fang, Fang and Xiao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ze Fang
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