The majority of in vivo studies showed a null or inverse association of ghrelin with risk and progression of most cancers , suggesting that ghrelin/ghrelin-receptor agonist treatment may have a favorable safety profile to use for cancer cachexia .
Ghrelin is a hormone with multiple physiologic functions , including promotion of growth hormone release , stimulation of appetite and regulation of energy homeostasis .
Treatment with ghrelin/ghrelin-receptor agonists is a prospect i ve therapy for disease-related cachexia and malnutrition .
In vitro studies have shown high expression of ghrelin in cancer tissue , although its role including its impact in cancer risk and progression has not been established .
Polymorphisms of genes coding for ghrelin and its receptor in relation to anthropometry, circulating levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-3, and breast cancer risk: a case-control study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).
Ghrelin , an endogenous lig and for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor , has two major functions : the stimulation of the growth hormone production and the stimulation of food intake . Accumulating evidence also suggests a role of ghrelin in cancer development . We conducted a case-control study on 1359 breast cancer cases and 2389 matched controls , nested within the European Prospect i ve Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition , to examine the association of common genetic variants in the genes coding for ghrelin ( GHRL ) and its receptor ( GHSR ) with anthropometric measures , circulating insulin growth factor I ( IGF-I ) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 and breast cancer risk .  Pair-wise tagging was used to select the 15 polymorphisms that represent the majority of common genetic variants across the GHRL and GHSR genes . A significant increase in breast cancer risk was observed in carriers of the GHRL rs171407-G allele ( odds ratio : 1.2 ; 95 % confidence interval : 1.0 - 1.4 ; P = 0.02 ) . The GHRL single-nucleotide polymorphism rs375577 was associated with a 5 % increase in IGF-I levels ( P = 0.01 ) . A number of GHRL and GHSR polymorphisms were associated with body mass index ( BMI ) and height ( P between < 0.01 and 0.04 ) . The false-positive report probability ( FPRP ) approach suggests that these results are noteworthy ( FPRP < 0.20 ) . The results presented here add to a growing body of evidence that GHRL variations are associated with BMI . Furthermore , we have observed evidence for association of GHRL polymorphisms with circulating IGF-I levels and with breast cancer risk . These associations , however , might also be due to chance findings and further large studies are needed to confirm our results
The majority of in vivo studies showed a null or inverse association of ghrelin with risk and progression of most cancers , suggesting that ghrelin/ghrelin-receptor agonist treatment may have a favorable safety profile to use for cancer cachexia .
Ghrelin is a hormone with multiple physiologic functions , including promotion of growth hormone release , stimulation of appetite and regulation of energy homeostasis .
Treatment with ghrelin/ghrelin-receptor agonists is a prospect i ve therapy for disease-related cachexia and malnutrition .
In vitro studies have shown high expression of ghrelin in cancer tissue , although its role including its impact in cancer risk and progression has not been established .