Insulin-like growth factor-1 levels in patients with brain tumor

Abstract

Objective To explore the relationship between the level of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and brain tumors and to investigate whether there is relationship between the operation of pituitary adenoma or craniopharyngioma and the alternation of IGF-1 in serum.Method We had examined the level of IGF-1 in serums of 193 patients with brain tumors and 61 corresponding patients after operation.SPSS16.0 software was used for the statistics analysis.Results ①The levels of IGF-1 were significantly different between the malignant brain tumor group and the benign brain tumor group(P ＜ 0.05).There was significantly different between the non-invasive pituitary adenoma group and invasive pituitary adenoma group(P ＜ 0.05).②The levlse of IGF-1 were significantly different between before and after operation in the craniopharyngioma group (P ＜ 0.05).However,there was no significant difference in both invasive pituitar and non-invasive pituitar adenoma group when IGF-1 levels were compaired prior and after operation (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions ①The serum levels of IGF-1 were different between the malignant and the benign brain tumor group.IGF-1 level could be used to determine the degree of malignancy in the early stage of brain tumors.②The serum level of IGF-1 was significantly altered after operation in the craniopharyngioma group.IGF-1 can be used to estimate the prognosis of patients. Key words: Pituitary tumor; Craniopharyngioma; Insulin-like growth factor-1