This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Low plasma adiponectin levels linked to pancreatic cancer
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Patients with low levels of circulating adiponectin are at an increased risk for developing pancreatic cancer, according to recent results.
In a nested case-control study, researchers evaluated prediagnostic levels of plasma adiponectin in blood samples drawn from 468 patients with pancreatic cancer, as well as samples from 1,080 matched controls. Participants were collected from five prospective cohorts: the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, Nurses’ Health Study, Physicians’ Health Study, Women’s Health Initiative and Women’s Health Study.
Patients with pancreatic cancer had significantly lower median levels of adiponectin than controls (6.2 mcg/mL compared with 6.8 mcg/mL, P=.009). Investigators observed an inverse, independent association between risk for pancreatic cancer and plasma adiponectin across all cohorts (P=.49 for heterogeneity).
Multivariate analysis indicated that patients with more than 4.4 mcg/mL of plasma adiponectin were less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those with less than 4.4 mcg/mL (OR=0.61, 0.43-0.86 for 4.4-5.8 mcg/mL; OR=0.58, 0.41-0.84 for 5.9-7.8 mcg/mL; OR=0.59, 0.40-0.87 for 7.9-10.8 mcg/mL; and OR=0.66, 0.44-0.97 for 10.9 mcg/mL or more; 95% CI for all. Further gender-specific analysis indicated similar associations, but the trends were not significant (P=.08 for men; P=.30 for women).
The association between adiponectin and pancreatic cancer risk was determined to be nonlinear via restricted cubic spline regression (P<.01). Factors such as sex, tobacco use, BMI, physical activity and C-peptide did not significantly impact this association (P>.10 for all). Exclusion of patients with diabetes, or those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer within 2 or 4 years of sample collection also did not have a significant effect.
“We found that low prediagnostic adiponectin is associated with a statistically significantly increased risk of pancreatic cancer,” the researchers wrote. “Our data provide additional evidence for a biological link between obesity, insulin resistance, and pancreatic cancer risk and also suggest an independent role of adiponectin in the development of pancreatic cancer. Future studies need to further elucidate the molecular mechanisms through which adiponectin influences pancreatic carcinogenesis.”
Disclosure: See the study for a full list of relevant disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts