Although the correlation between having diabetes and developing cancer has been found in previous research, a new study indicates that the risk is different for men and women.
Diabetes and cancer risk—by gender
A group of Chinese researchers used the medical data from a large Chinese cohort. The looked at the information for 410,191 adults who had type 2 diabetes but not cancer. Looking at the data from these same people one year later, they found that:
• 8,485 people had developed cancer
• men with type 2 diabetes had a 34% higher risk of cancer
• women had a 62% higher risk
• males with type 2 diabetes had a greater risk of up to 11 forms of cancer
• women with type 2 diabetes had a greater risk of up to 13 forms of cancer
• men with type 2 diabetes had a lower risk of esophageal cancer
• women with type 2 diabetes had a lower risk of gallbladder cancer
For men, the highest cancer risk was prostate cancer (86% greater risk than for men without type 2 diabetes). They also had an increased risk for skin, lung, pancreatic, liver, kidney, thyroid, stomach and colorectal cancer, as well as leukemia and lymphoma.
For women, the highest cancer risk was nasopharyngeal cancer (twofold compared to women without type 2 diabetes). Women also had an increased risk for leukemia, lymphoma and colorectal cancer, as well as cancer of the thyroid, liver, esophagus, pancreas, uterus, breast, cervix, lungs and stomach.
The benefits of the database
Access to the database certainly made the research easier in terms of gathering information.
“The Shanghai Hospital Link Center has collected clinical information from the main general and specialized hospitals and created a centralized data repository for all residents in Shanghai since 2013,” explains Bin Cui, co-author of the study. “Based on this database, our research could be carried out smoothly and efficiently.”
The research paper was published in the Journal of Diabetes.
