Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Mar 18;479(5):583-607.
doi: 10.1042/BCJ20210134.

Insulin and cancer: a tangled web

Brooks P Leitner  1   2 , Stephan Siebel  1   2   3 , Ngozi D Akingbesote  1   2 , Xinyi Zhang  1   2 , Rachel J Perry  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Insulin and cancer: a tangled web

Brooks P Leitner et al. Biochem J. .

Abstract

For a century, since the pioneering work of Otto Warburg, the interwoven relationship between metabolism and cancer has been appreciated. More recently, with obesity rates rising in the U.S. and worldwide, epidemiologic evidence has supported a link between obesity and cancer. A substantial body of work seeks to mechanistically unpack the association between obesity, altered metabolism, and cancer. Without question, these relationships are multifactorial and cannot be distilled to a single obesity- and metabolism-altering hormone, substrate, or factor. However, it is important to understand the hormone-specific associations between metabolism and cancer. Here, we review the links between obesity, metabolic dysregulation, insulin, and cancer, with an emphasis on current investigational metabolic adjuncts to standard-of-care cancer treatment.

Keywords: cancer metabolism; diabetes; immunometabolism.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no competing interests associated with the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Sarcopenia creates an anabolic environment for tumors, while cancer cachexia creates a catabolic environment for organs. Made in BioRender.com.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Insulin signaling promotes cell division in tumors. Made in BioRender.com.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Plasma Insulin is an independent tumor-promoting factor through all stages of cancer progression. Made in BioRender.com.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. Proposed mechanisms by which obesity may promote the progression of certain tumors. Made in BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/obesity/index.htm (2021, March 10) Obesity and Cancer | CDC.
    1. Zhang, D., Chen, J., Wang, J., Gong, S., Jin, H., Sheng, P.et al. (2016) Body mass index and risk of brain tumors: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 70, 757–765 10.1038/ejcn.2016.4 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Niedermaier, T., Behrens, G., Schmid, D., Schlecht, I., Fischer, B. and Leitzmann, M.F. (2015) Body mass index, physical activity, and risk of adult meningioma and glioma: a meta-analysis. Neurology 85, 1342–1350 10.1212/WNL.0000000000002020 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chen, Q., Zhuang, H. and Liu, Y. (2012) The association between obesity factor and esophageal cancer. J. Gastrointest. Oncol. 3, 226–231 10.3978/j.issn.2078-6891.2012.026 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Elliott, J.A. and Reynolds, J.V. (2021) Visceral obesity, metabolic syndrome, and esophageal adenocarcinoma. Front. Oncol. 11, 692 10.3389/fonc.2021.627270 - DOI - PMC - PubMed