The Insulin and IGF-I Pathway in Endocrine Glands Carcinogenesis

Table 1

Main molecular alterations involving the IGF system components in thyroid, adrenal, and ovarian cancer.

Molecular alteration	Thyroid cancer	Adrenal cancer	Ovarian cancer
IGF-IR overexpression	+	+	+
IR overexpression	+; (IR-A)	?	+; (IR-A)
HRs overexpression	+	?	?
IGFs overexpression	+; (IGF-I and IGF-II)	+; (IGF-II > IGF-I)	+; (IGF-II > IGF-I)
IGFs autocrine production	+; (IGF-I and IGF-II)	+; (IGF-II > IGF-I)	+; (IGF-I and IGF-II)
IGF-II/IR-A loop activation	+	?	+
IGFBPs overexpression	+	+; (IGFBP-2, IGFBP-3, IGFBP-6)	+; (IGFBP-2 > IGFBP-3 > IGFBP-4)
Relationship with elevated levels of insulin	+	+	+