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03/04/2020 6:15 pm
Doping with growth hormone/IGF-1, anabolic steroids or erythropoietin: is there a cancer risk?
Department of Neuroscience, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Accepted 26 January 2007. Available online 3 February 2007.
Abstract
Anabolic steroid and peptide hormones or growth factors are utilized to increase the performance of athletes of professional or amateur sports. Despite their well-documented adverse effects, the use of some of these agents has significantly grown and has been extended also to non-athletes with the aim to improve appearance or to counteract ageing. Pre-clinical studies and epidemiological observations in patients with an excess of hormone production or in patients chronically treated with hormones/growth factors for various pathologies have warned about the potential risk of cancer development and progression which may be also associated to the use of certain doping agents. Anabolic steroids have been described to provoke liver tumours; growth hormone or high levels of its mediator insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) have been associated with colon, breast, and prostate cancers. Actually, IGF-1 promotes cell cycle progression and inhibits apoptosis either by triggering other growth factors or by interacting with pathways which have an established role in carcinogenesis and cancer promotion. More recently, the finding that erythropoietin (Epo) may promote angiogenesis and inhibit apoptosis or modulate chemo- or radiosensitivity in cancer cells expressing the Epo receptor, raised the concern that the use of recombinant Epo to increase tissue oxygenation might favour tumour survival and aggressiveness.
Cancer risk associated to doping might be higher than that of patients using hormones/growth factors as replacement therapy, since enormous doses are taken by the athletes often for a long period of time. Moreover, these substances are often used in combination with other licit or illicit drugs and this renders almost unpredictable all the possible adverse effects including cancer. Anyway, athletes should be made aware that long-term treatment with doping agents might increase the risk of developing cancer.
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
- Albert Einstein
03/04/2020 6:40 pm
essentially, NO! unless you have an existing cnacer or other situation that might be exacerbated there should be no complications from this. nice find
jb
03/04/2020 7:05 pm
essentially, NO! unless you have an existing cnacer or other situation that might be exacerbated there should be no complications from this. nice findjb
Well, this may be a case of common sense over science. While I will rarely disagree with JB I will on this one. And whats even worse about my disagreement is that I have absolutely zero evidence or literature to back myself up. However, I will say that anything and everything we do has a price to pay. I think thats what is important to remember here. Just take the least amount of what you need to get you where you want to go. Everything in moderation.
i was the 1997 International Spelling Bee Winnur
03/04/2020 7:35 pm
essentially, NO! unless you have an existing cnacer or other situation that might be exacerbated there should be no complications from this. nice findjb
i agree, i looked into the literature on IGF when i was intersted in it, it doesn't casuse cancer on its own but if you have a tumour, it will make it worse. suppose its a bit like gasoline (IGF) without the matches (Cancer)- no spark, no fire
03/04/2020 7:54 pm
i never suggested that you take enormous doses but i did see a lot of "mights" and "coulds" in the research. i really do not like to see researchers speculating on coulds and mights and believe that true scientists stay away from those terms. i have always advocated keeping it simple and using what you need to accomplish the goals you have set for yourself. use caution, do the research and then proceed based on decisions arrived at using critical thinking. since there is no research demonstrating evidence for cancer from using the substances i use, the threat of cancer has had zero impact on my decisions. there are many other real threats to consider.
jb