Diabetes Increases Cancer Risk in Japanese Adults

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- There may be a link between diabetes and cancer -- something researchers have suspected for a long time.

Now a study from the National Cancer Center in Tokyo reveals Japanese adults who have diabetes may have an increased overall risk of cancer and especially cancer in organs like the liver, pancreas and kidney.

Researchers studied the link between the two diseases in 97,771 Japanese men and women ages 40 to 69. Diabetic men had a 27-percent higher risk of developing cancer than men without diabetes. The risk was especially high for liver, kidney and pancreatic cancer. Diabetic women had a much higher risk of stomach and liver cancer and a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer.

The authors report it is not clear how diabetes may be linked to cancer, but they think the extra insulin in diabetics may increase the risk by causing cells to grow in some organs. They also say changes in sex hormone levels associated with diabetes could lead to ovarian cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.

The researchers warn, however, other factors may have something to do with the link. For example, obesity may contribute to both diabetes and cancer and some types of cancer may actually cause diabetes. Also diabetics often go to the doctor more frequently than people who don't have a chronic illness and this could lead to more cancer diagnoses.

Diabetes is quickly growing in Japan and other countries. Researchers expect 8.7 percent of the Japanese population to develop the disease by 2025.

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SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2006;166:1871-1877