Oestrogens transcriptionally downregulate IGFBPs in breast tissue and increase IGFBP-3 proteases, which may in part explain the inverse association between IGFBP-3 and ER expression [24,25], as well as perhaps reflecting the disruption of common pathways characteristic of poor prognostic tumours [2,50,51]. This evidence concerns the gene IGFBP3 and neoplasm.