Scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) use a combination of traditional and innovative methods to determine whether different factors affect a person’s risk of developing cancer. Dr Ruhina Laskar, a postdoctoral scientist in the Nutrition and Metabolism Branch of IARC, gives an example of a recent study in this vein.
IARC researchers examined whether higher levels of insulin in the blood, a factor that had long been associated with risk of colorectal cancer, actually had a causal effect on increased risk of developing colorectal cancer. Their results point the way to interventions that could prevent some cases of colorectal cancer from ever developing.