Prediagnostic markers of insulin resistance and prostate cancer risk and death: A pooled study

Background: Insulin resistance has been shown to be related to a higher risk of several cancers, but the association with prostate cancer (PCa) has been inconsistent. Methods: We investigated prediagnostic markers of insulin resistance in men in four cohorts in Sweden, in relation to PCa risk (total, non-aggressive and aggressive) and PCa death using multivariable-adjusted Cox regression. The number of men, PCa cases and PCa deaths was up to 66,668, 3940 and 473 for plasma glucose and the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index, and up to 3898, 586 and 102 for plasma insulin, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and leptin. Results: Higher HbA1c was related to a lower risk of non-aggressive PCa but no significant associations were found for insulin resistance markers with the risk of aggressive or total PCa. In PCa cases, higher glucose and TyG index were related to a higher risk of PCa death (hazard ratio [HR] per higher standard deviation, 1.22, 95% CI 1.00-1.49 and 1.24, 95% CI 1.00-1.55), which further increased when restricting the analyses to glucose and TyG index measures taken <10 years before the PCa diagnosis (HR, 1.70, 95% CI 1.09-2.70 and 1.66, 95% CI 1.12-2.51). No associations were observed for other markers in relation to PCa death. Conclusions: The results of this study showed no associations of insulin resistance markers with the risk of clinically relevant PCa, but higher glucose and TyG index were associated with poorer survival from PCa. The lack of association for other insulin resistance markers may be due to their smaller sample size.

Automated summary

This study found no significant association between insulin resistance markers and the risk of prostate cancer. However, higher levels of glucose and triglyceride-glucose index were associated with higher prostate cancer mortality. Other insulin resistance markers did not show significant associations with prostate cancer mortality.