Jonathan Hofmann

-

DCEG - Other

-

PLCO (Learn more about this study)

2011-0028

Mar 9, 2011

Risk of multiple myeloma in relation to plasma adipokine levels: a nested case-control study in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial

There is increasing evidence that obesity is associated with an increased risk of multiple myeloma (MM); however, the underlying biological mechanisms for this association have yet to be elucidated. It has been hypothesized that circulating levels of adipokines (polypeptide hormones secreted by adipose tissue) may play a role in the mechanism of action by which excess body weight is associated with MM risk. Two previous hospital-based case-control studies reported associations between adipokine levels and MM. We propose to evaluate the relationship between pre-diagnostic plasma adipokine levels and risk of MM in a nested case-control study among participants in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO). Circulating levels of adiponectin, leptin, and resistin will be measured in pre-diagnostic plasma samples collected from approximately 160 MM cases and 320 matched controls. Plasma adipokine levels will be measured by the laboratory of Dr. Michael Pollak (Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada). Quality control data from other NCI studies conducted in collaboration with Dr. Pollak's laboratory demonstrate high reproducibility of adipokine measurements (CVs for total assay variability of 5.4%, 6.7%, and 12.1% for leptin, adiponectin, and resistin, respectively). Conditional logistic regression will be used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for MM risk by quartiles of each analyte based on the distribution among controls. With 160 cases and 320 controls, we will have sufficient statistical power (greater than or equal to 80%) to detect a dose-response trend in MM risk if the OR comparing the highest and lowest quartiles of a given adipokine is greater than 2.0 (two-sided test, alpha=0.05). This study will be, to our knowledge, the first prospective investigation of circulating adipokine levels and MM.