Study into cancer risk of type 2 diabetes

Thu, 03 Jun 2010
The widest ever study of cancer risks for people with type 2 diabetes has investigating the types of cancer in which diabetes plays a role. It examined 125,126 Swedish citizens who had been hospitalised because of problems associated with type 2 diabetes, with epidemiologists comparing the cancer incidence in these patients with that of the general population in the country.

In the industrialized countries, between 2 and 20 per cent of the population get type 2 diabetes, which is characterised by insulin resistance in tissue, making it one of the biggest challenges for public health care.

Epidemiologists have been examining if the risk factors for cancer and diabetes were the same or whether diabetes can cause processes that promote the onset or growth of cancer, especially since diabetics have a higher rate of cancer than those who do not suffer from the condition.

With the study attempting to quantify correlations between diabetes and less common types of cancer, it was found that people with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing 24 of the types of cancer studied, with the most significant risk elevation being for pancreatic and liver cell cancers.

It also revealed that the risk of cancers of the kidneys, thyroid, esophagus, small intestine and nervous system are more than twice as high among those with the metabolic disorder .

The research showed that people with type 2 diabetes have a significantly lower rate of prostate cancer, and this was particularly apparent in diabetes patients with a family history of the condition. One reason for this may be due to a lower level of male sex hormones in diabetics.

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