A polymorphic repeat in the IGF1 promoter influences the risk of endometrial cancer

Due to the lack of high-throughput genetic assays for tandem repeats, there is a paucity of knowledge about the role they may play in disease. A polymorphic CA repeat in the promoter region of the insulin-like growth factor 1 gene (IGF1 has been studied extensively over the past 10 years for association with the risk of developing breast cancer, among other cancers, with variable results. The aim of this study was to determine if this CA repeat is associated with the risk of developing breast cancer and endometrial cancer. Using a case–control design, we analysed the length of this CA repeat in a series of breast cancer and endometrial cancer cases and compared this with a control population. Our results showed an association when both alleles were considered in breast and endometrial cancers (P=0.029 and 0.011, respectively), but this did not pass our corrected threshold for significance due to multiple testing. When the allele lengths were analysed categorically against the most common allele length of 19 CA repeats, an association was observed with the risk of endometrial cancer due to a reduction in the number of long alleles (P=0.013). This was confirmed in an analysis of the long alleles separately for endometrial cancer risk (P=0.0012). Our study found no association between the length of this polymorphic CA repeat and breast cancer risk. The significant association observed between the CA repeat length and the risk of developing endometrial cancer has not been previously reported.