ReviewCancer causes & control : CCC1996
Nutrition, hormones, and breast cancer: is insulin the missing link?
Review in Cancer causes & control : CCC, 1996. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 374 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diabetes and breast cancer risk: a meta-analysis.British journal of cancer · 2012Pooled it
- Cancer risk in diabetic patients treated with metformin: a systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2012Pooled it
- Physical activity and survival after breast cancer diagnosis: meta-analysis of published studies.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2011Pooled it
- An exercise trial targeting African-American women with metabolic syndrome and at high risk for breast cancer: Rationale, design, and methods.Contemporary clinical trials · 2015Trial
- Effects of dietary intervention on IGF-I and IGF-binding proteins, and related alterations in sex steroid metabolism: the Diet and Androgens (DIANA) Randomised Trial.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2003Trial
- Metabolomic signatures of hypocaloric dietary interventions associate with breast cancer risk in the Nurses' Health Study II.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Empirical dietary inflammatory pattern could increase the odds of breast cancer: a case-control study.BMC research notes · 2024Article
- Leptin: A Heavyweight Player in Obesity-Related Cancers.Biomolecules · 2023Review
- Menstrual cycle characteristics and incident cancer: a prospective cohort study.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- Review
- Adipose tissue area as a predictor for the efficacy of apatinib in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer: an exploratory imaging biomarker analysis of the AEROC trial.BMC medicine · 2020Article
- Breast Cancer: Lifestyle, the Human Gut Microbiota/Microbiome, and Survivorship.The Permanente journal · 2020Article
- Relationship between Diabetes and Diabetes Medications and Risk of Different Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancer.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2019Article
- Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and incidence of breast cancer: the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) Project.European journal of nutrition · 2019Article
- Risk prediction for breast Cancer in Han Chinese women based on a cause-specific Hazard model.BMC cancer · 2019Article
- Intake of bean fiber, beans, and grains and reduced risk of hormone receptor-negative breast cancer: the San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study.Cancer medicine · 2018Article
- The potential contribution of dietary factors to breast cancer prevention.European journal of cancer prevention : the official journal of the European Cancer Prevention Organisation (ECP) · 2017Review
- Effect of oncological treatment on serum adipocytokine levels in patients with stage II-III breast cancer.Molecular and clinical oncology · 2016Article
- Obesity and Breast Cancer: A Complex Relationship.Current surgery reports · 2016Article
- The integrative role of leptin, oestrogen and the insulin family in obesity-associated breast cancer: potential effects of exercise.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2015Review
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Breast cancer incidence rates are high in societies with a Western lifestyle characterized by low levels of physical activity, and by an energy-dense diet rich in total and saturated fat and refined carbohydrates. Epidemiologic studies, so far mostly on postmenopausal women, have shown that breast cancer risk is increased in hyperandrogenic women, with decreased levels of plasma sex-hormone binding globulin, and with increased levels of testosterone and of free estrogens. This paper describes the role of hyperinsulinemia as a physiologic link between nutritional lifestyle factors, obesity, and the development of a hyperandrogenic endocrine profile, and reviews evidence that may or may not support the theory that chronic hyperinsulinemia is an underlying cause of breast cancer. An hypothesis is presented, stipulating that breast cancer risk is increased not only in hyperandrogenic postmenopausal women, but also in premenopausal women with mild hyperandrogenism and normal (ovulatory) menstrual cycles. The author suggests further investigation as to whether there is a positive association between risk of breast cancer before menopause and subclinical forms of the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and to what extent diet and physical activity during childhood, by modulating the degree of insulin resistance during adolescence, may or may not be determinants of a PCO-like hyperandrogenic endocrine profile persisting into adulthood.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.