- A research team from The University School of Medicine has showed that diabetes influences risk of death due to cancer among Asians.
- The risk of death is increased by 26% among people with diabetes
- The overall influence of diabetes on the risk of death due to cancer was the same in Asian populations as it is in Western populations
- Only one or a few types of cancers were included
- Only a small sample of patients with diabetes were included
- Other important risk factors like obesity were not controlled for
- 658,611 East Asians
- 112,686 South Asians from Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, India, Japan, Bangladesh and China
The study findings showed that
- There was a 26% increase in the risk of death due to any cancer among people with diabetes, including factors like alcohol consumption, body mass index (BMI) and smoking
- There was statistical association between type 2 diabetes and death due to specific cancers
- There was an increased risk of death due to cancers of the breast, bile duct, liver, pancreas and the colorectum, when associated with diabetes
- The risk of death was doubled in cancers of the thyroid, kidney and the liver, when associated with diabetes
- There was 2.7 times increased risk of death due to endometrial cancer when associated with diabetes
- There was 1.7 times increased risk of death due to breast cancer when associated with diabetes
Increased Risk of Death Among Asians
The risk of death due to site-specific cancers like thyroid, kidney and prostate cancer was higher among Asians than among people of European origin. Moreover, the risk of death due to cancer was found to be greater among participants who were less than 60 years of age.The scientists involved in the study stated that
- The effect of type 2 diabetes on the risk of death due to overall cancer, breast cancer and digestive cancer was similar to the risk associated with the Western population.
- The enormity of the data analyzed showed that type 2 diabetes should be considered as a serious risk factor for cancer, especially liver cancer which had a high incidence in Asians.
Increase in Body Fat
The American Institute of Cancer Research found that hyperinsulinemia, cancer and type 2 diabetes all shared a common high-risk factor- high body fat. A high body fat resulted in hormonal changes which led to an increase in the risk for cancer and for type 2 diabetes. There are many tumors that have insulin receptors and many studies have shown that insulin is important in the development of cancer. However, there is no direct link associated with insulin and cancer. The scientists believe that there could be other pathways that are triggered by insulin in the growth and proliferation of cancer.References:
- Yu Chen et al. Association between type 2 diabetes and risk of cancer mortality: a pooled analysis of over 771,000 individuals in the Asia Cohort Consortium, Diabetologia (2017). DOI: 10.1007/s00125-017-4229-z
- The Diabetes-Cancer Connection - (http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=13631&news_iv_ctrl=0&abbr=res_)