Circulating resistin levels and risk of multiple myeloma in three prospective cohorts

Background: Resistin is a polypeptide hormone secreted by adipose tissue. A prior hospital-based case-control study reported serum resistin levels to be inversely associated with risk of multiple myeloma (MM). To date, this association has not been investigated prospectively. Methods: We measured resistin concentrations for pre-diagnosis peripheral blood samples from 178 MM cases and 358 individually matched controls from three cohorts participating in the MM cohort consortium. Results: In overall analyses, higher resistin levels were weakly associated with reduced MM risk. For men, we observed a statistically significant inverse association between resistin levels and MM (odds ratio, 0.44; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.24-0.83 and 0.54; 95% CI 0.29-0.99, for the third and fourth quartiles, respectively, vs the lowest quartile; P-trend = 0.03). No association was observed for women. Conclusions: This study provides the first prospective evidence that low circulating resistin levels may be associated with an increased risk of MM, particularly for men.