Anti-insulin-like growth factor therapy in breast cancer.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing preclinical rationale and clinical trial outcomes without systematic review methodology.
PubMed 29378771 · doi:10.1530/JME-17-0261
What was done
This narrative review synthesized preclinical and population data regarding type I insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF1R) signaling in breast cancer growth and evaluated outcomes from clinical trials testing IGF1R-targeted monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (particularly in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer).
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical outcomes. It notes that while early clinical trials initially suggested potential benefit, subsequent trials testing IGF1R inhibitors in breast cancer—including multiple trials in estrogen receptor-positive disease—failed to demonstrate improved outcomes when compared to conventional therapy.
Why it matters
Despite strong mechanistic rationale in preclinical models, IGF1R-targeted monotherapies and combinations have consistently failed in breast cancer trials, underscoring the need to understand resistance mechanisms and identify reliable predictive biomarkers before further development.
Limits
As a narrative review, it lacks a systematic literature search, meta-analytic pooling, and risk-of-bias assessment. The abstract does not provide specific trial names, sample sizes, hazard ratios, response rates, or survival statistics.
Cited by
- supports Multiple clinical trials evaluating IGF-1 pathway inhibitors as cancer therapies failed.