From liver to kidney and pancreatic cancer, how DIABETES can increase the risk of the disease
Published 7 Mar 2016
Type 1 diabetes increases a person's risk of being diagnosed with a number of different cancers, experts have discovered.
However, they found being an insulin-dependent diabetic also reduces the chances of other forms of the disease.
While the likelihood of being diagnosed with stomach, liver, pancreatic, ovarian and kidney cancer is higher, the odds are lower when it comes to developing a breast or prostate tumor.
Type 1 diabetes is marked by an inability to produce the hormone insulin.
Across all cancers combined, having the condition had no impact on men but increased women's overall risk by seven per cent.
Researchers analysed more than 9,000 cancer cases reported in people with type 1 diabetes, across five countries, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Scotland and Sweden.
Cancer incidence rates were compared with those for the general population.
The neutral finding for men with type 1 diabetes was largely due to a 44 per cent reduction of the risk of prostate cancer, said the researchers.
Writing in the journal Diabetologia, the authors led by statistician Bendix Carstensen, from the Steno Diabetes Centre in Denmark, concluded: 'Our findings do not support changes in policy for cancer screening for persons with type 1 diabetes.
'Recommendations for lifestyle approaches to reducing cancer risk such as avoiding smoking, weight management and physical activity apply to persons with type 1 diabetes as for the general population.'
Previous research has suggested that diabetics are 20 per cent to 25 per cent more likely to develop cancer than people without diabetes.
However most of these studies involved people with type 2 diabetes, the much more common form of the disease which is associated with obesity and lifestyle.
When it came to specific types of cancer, male type 1 diabetics were 23 per cent more like to develop stomach cancer, while their female peers were at 78 per cent higher risk.
For liver cancer the risk increases two-fold in men with the condition, and women are at 55 per cent greater risk.
Furthermore, in pancreatic cancer the risk is 53 per cent higher for men, and 25 per cent greater for women; in kidney cancer, 30 per cent for men and 47 per cent for women.
A woman with type 1 diabetes is also at 42 per cent great chance of suffering endometrial cancer.
But, in contrast, women with the condition are 10 per cent less likely to have breast cancer, though the reasons are unclear, researchers noted.
They said that cancer diagnoses were at their highest level shortly after a person was diagnosed with diabetes.
In contrast, men who have lived with type 1 diabetes for around 20 years have the same risk of cancer as the general population.
In women the risk declined to the level of the general population after five years.
The researchers said the highly elevated risk of cancer diagnosis shortly after a type 1 diabetes diagnosis is likely due to the detection of pre-existing cancers.
They said a patient newly diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic will receive more medical attention and tests, than the average person, and as a result it is more likely any underlying conditions, like cancer, are spotted.
The study authors pointed out their finding that fewer type 1 diabetics are likely to develop cancer compared to those people with type 2 diabetes, suggests there is no indication that insulin treatment is to blame.
They state: 'If insulin treatment was a major cancer risk factor, the excess cancer incidence among people with type 1 diabetes would be expected to be higher than among people with type 2 diabetes.'
That, they said, is because all type 1 diabetics are treated with insulin, whereas only a proportion of those with type 2 diabetes receive the treatment.
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