Abstract:Objective To investigate the levels of serum insulin-like growth factor Ⅰ (IGF-Ⅰ) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) in bladder cancer patients and their relationships with the pathological features of bladder cancer. Methods Two hundreds patients with bladder cancer treated in Department of Urology of our hospital from January 2015 to December 2017 were taken as the bladder cancer group and 200 healthy patients during the same period were treated as the control group. The serum IGF-Ⅰ and IGFBP-3 levels were measured. Results The serum IGF-Ⅰ and IGFBP-3 levels in the bladder cancer group were lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05), and IGF-Ⅰ/IGFBP-3 in the bladder cancer group was higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). In the patients with bladder cancer, the serum IGF-Ⅰ and IGFBP-3 levels after surgery were significantly higher than those before surgery (P < 0.05), and IGF-Ⅰ/IGFBP-3 was lower than that before surgery (P < 0.05). The serum IGF-Ⅰ and IGFBP-3 levels in the patients with low-grade bladder cancer were higher than those in the highgrade bladder cancer patients (P < 0.05), and IGF-Ⅰ/IGFBP-3 in the patients with low-grade bladder cancer was not significantly different from that in the high-grade bladder cancer patients (P > 0.05). The serum levels of IGF-Ⅰ and IGFBP-3 in the bladder cancer patients with intramuscular invasion were lower than those in the patients without muscular infiltration (P < 0.05), while there was no significant difference in IGF-Ⅰ/IGFBP-3 between the bladder cancer patients with muscular invasion and those without muscle infiltration (P > 0.05). The serum levels of IGF-Ⅰ and IGFBP-3 of the patients in stage T3 or T4 were lower than those of the patients in stage Ta-T2 (P < 0.05). The serum levels of IGF-Ⅰ and IGFBP-3 in the patients with lymph node metastasis were lower than those without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). Conclusions Serum IGF-Ⅰ and IGFBP-3 levels decrease in the patients with bladder cancer. Serum IGF-Ⅰ and IGFBP-3 levels are expected to be indicators for the diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of bladder cancer.