Effect of Resveratrol on Serum IGF2 Among African American Women

African American (AA) women with breast cancer (BC) have higher mortality and are associated with worse outcomes when treated with available adjuvant treatments. Addressing this survival disparity will depend on identifying contributing biologic factors that can be translated into new treatments. Preclinical studies have shown that Insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II)expression was significantly higher in AA cell lines and tissue samples when compared to Caucasians indicating that IGF-II is an important biologic factor contributing to higher breast cancer mortality in AA women and is also responsible for chemoresistance in BC cells. In addition preclinical studies also demonstrated that resveratrol (RSV) inhibits IGF-II and induces apoptosis in BC cell lines. Researchers want to test IGF-II levels at baseline in healthy African American women and monitor levels while on resveratrol therapy for 6 weeks.