Milk and Cancer: Is There any Relation?
Edanur Topal1, Sina Kashani1, Begüm Arda1, Oytun Erbaş1,2
1ERBAS Institute of Experimental Medicine, Illinois, USA & Gebze, Turkey
2Department of Physiology, Medical Faculty of Demiroğlu Bilim University, Istanbul, Turkey
Keywords: Cancer, insulin-like growth factor, milk
Abstract
It has been shown that the consumption of milk, which is an important part of our diet, increases the serum levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) in the blood. IGF is a mitogenic hormone known to play a role in cell growth, differentiation, and metabolism. Therefore, it is thought that it could potentially promote tumor development and growth. Cancer is the uncontrolled proliferation of cells with impaired growth characteristics and is a fatal disease. Studies have suggested that as a result of these connections, milk may trigger cancer formation due to its positive effects on growth hormones. In this review, studies examining the relationship between milk and IGF, IGF and cancer, milk, IGF and cancer are compiled.
Cite this article as: Topal E, Kashani S, Arda B, Erbaş O. Milk and Cancer: Is There any Relation? JEB Med Sci 2021;2(1):34-40.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.