The present study reports the following associations between BRCA1 and IGF1R status in ovarian cancer cells: i) IGF1R expression is increased in non-BRCA1-mutated ovarian cancer; ii) BRCA1 inactivation (BRCA1 mutation and promoter hypermethylation) markedly increases the expression of IGF1R; and iii) BRCA1 knockdown is an effective method to activate the IGF1R gene. The gene discussed is BRCA1; the disease is ovarian cancer.