Japanese adults with diabetes have an increased risk of cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A study has found that Japanese adults who have diabetes also have an increased risk of cancer, especially in the liver, pancreas and kidney.
It's long been thought that there might be a link between diabetes and cancer. Researchers at the National Cancer Center, Tokyo, have been trying to shed new light on this question - especially given that diabetes is rapidly becoming more common in Japan. They looked at nearly 100,000 individuals and found that 6.7 per cent of the men and 3.1 per cent of the women had a history of diabetes at the start of the study.

By the end of the study, around ten years later, 6,462 individuals had developed cancer. Men with diabetes had a 27 per cent higher risk of cancer than those without; the corresponding figure for women was 21 per cent. The risk was heightened for liver, pancreatic, and stomach cancer. It is not clear why diabetes should increase the risk of cancer - it may be that excess insulin stimulates the growth of cells in the liver or pancreas, promoting these cancers. Or it may be that some common risk factor is involved in both diabetes and cancer. And some cancers may cause diabetes. Also, those with diabetes visit the doctor more often and maybe this leads to more cancer diagnoses through increased vigilance. The concern for Japan is that the increase in diabetes looks likely to bring a corresponding increase in cancer.

Source
Archives of Internal Medicine 25th September 2006 Volume 166 pages 1871-1877

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