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Hyperinsulinemia and Hypoadiponectinemia are Associated with Increased Risk for Occurrence of Ovarian Cancer in Non-diabetic Women of North Indian Population

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Abstract

Ovarian cancer has been emerged as a most common and lethal gynecological malignancy in India. High serum insulin and low adiponectin have been associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer. But their role in development of ovarian cancer is conflicting and little evidence is available. We aimed to evaluate blood levels of insulin and adiponectin in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients and their association with the risk to develop EOC. The study included following three groups; Group 1: fifty cases of cytohistopathologically confirmed cases of EOC, Group 2: fifty age matched cases of benign ovarian conditions and Group 3: fifty ages matched healthy controls with no evidence of any benign or malignant ovarian pathology as ruled out by clinical examination and relevant investigations. Cytohistopathologically confirmed and newly diagnosed cases of EOC and benign ovarian cancer were included in this study. The median value of fasting serum insulin was significantly high (15.0 µlU/ml, P = 0.02) and adiponectin were significantly low (5.1 µg/ml, P < 0.001) in ovarian cancer patients compared to benign ovarian tumors and healthy controls group. A significant increase risk of ovarian cancer was found in high tertile (≥ 18.7 µlU/ml) of serum insulin level (OR = 2.7; 95% CI = 1.00–6.67, P = 0.04) and lower tertile (≤ 5.45 µg/ml) of adiponectin level (OR = 3.2; 95% CI = 1.10–9.71, P = 0.03). High serum insulin level and low adiponectin levels were significantly associated with increased risk for development of ovarian cancer.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to members of ethical committee, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi for giving opportunity to conduct study.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or publication of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India

    Rohit Kumar Gupta

  2. Department of Biochemistry, R. D. Gardi Medical College, Ujjain, M.P., India

    Sagar Jayantilal Dholariya

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India

    Smita Kaushik & S. K. Gupta

  4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India

    Reva Tripathi

  5. Department of Pathology, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India

    Shyam Lata Jain

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  1. Rohit Kumar Gupta
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  2. Sagar Jayantilal Dholariya
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  4. S. K. Gupta
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Contributions

RKG designed research, collection and analysis of data, clinical monitoring and laboratory detection and reviewed the manuscript; SJD performed collection and analysis of data and helped in manuscript preparation. SK, SKG, RT and SLJ helped in discussion, designing research strategies and crafting the manuscript. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sagar Jayantilal Dholariya.

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Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethics Approval

Study has been approved by ethical committee of Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi and hospital based case–control study has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Informed consent was taken from all participants.

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Gupta, R.K., Dholariya, S.J., Kaushik, S. et al. Hyperinsulinemia and Hypoadiponectinemia are Associated with Increased Risk for Occurrence of Ovarian Cancer in Non-diabetic Women of North Indian Population. Ind J Clin Biochem 36, 221–227 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12291-020-00891-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12291-020-00891-9

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