Analysis of data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink indicates that incidence of liver, pancreatic and colon cancer is significantly higher in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) vs those without diabetes. However, incidence of oesophageal cancer was lower in the diabetic cohort. These findings were published in the journal, Cancer Epidemiology.
This retrospective cohort study evaluated patients with T2DM (n=333,438) who were matched to a non-diabetic cohort (n=333,438) by age, sex and practice. Incidence rates (IRs) and IR ratios (IRRs) were calculated for gastrointestinal cancers in the diabetic and reference cohorts.
During more than 3.6 million person-years of follow-up, 10,977 cases of gastrointestinal cancer were observed. Any gastrointestinal cancer incidence was significantly higher in diabetic vs non-diabetic cohort (all gastrointestinal cancer: IRR, 1.20; liver cancer: IRR, 2.87; pancreatic cancer, IRR, 2.12; and colon cancer, IRR, 1.09; P for all <.05). However, incidence of oesophageal cancer was significantly lower in the diabetic cohort (IRR, 0.87; P<.05).
Authors comment: “Insulin is thought to be one of the major hormonal contributors to the diabetes-cancer link.” They further emphasise on importance of clinical awareness for liver, pancreatic, and colon cancer among the T2DM population. However, the authors warrant further investigation on lower incidence of oesophageal cancer in patients with diabetes.
