Patients with type 2 diabetes are twice as likely to die from cancer, researchers say

Type 2 diabetes makes death from certain cancers more than twice as likely, a major study has found.

According to British researchers, people with colon, liver, pancreatic and endometrial cancer are twice as likely to die from diabetes.

Younger women with type 2 diabetes – which is often associated with obesity – have also been found to have an increased risk of dying if they develop breast cancer.

The results suggest that cancer has replaced heart attack and stroke as the leading cause of death in people with type 2 diabetes.

Experts believe that long-term exposure to the effects of elevated blood sugar and insulin levels, insulin resistance, and chronic inflammation can cause some cancers and make others potentially more deadly.

They warned that the number of deaths could gain momentum unless more is done to tackle the obesity epidemic, and urged officials to consider additional cancer screening programs to target those most at risk. The study used the UK GP database to access information on more than 135,000 Britons aged 35 and over who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 1998 and 2018.

While the all-cause death rate from cancer has fallen under the age of 75, death rates associated with type 2 diabetes have bucked the trend by increasing over the past two decades.

Death rates for pancreatic, liver and lung cancer increased in all age groups, while colon cancer increased in most age groups, researchers found.

Meanwhile, breast cancer rates have risen in younger women – classified as under 55 – and prostate and endometrial cancer in women aged 75 and over.

Dr Suping Ling, who led the research from the Leicester Diabetes Research Center and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the results show that type 2 diabetes affects cancer death rates.

She suggested that changes to existing screening programs or more detailed investigation of suspected or non-specific cancer symptoms in type 2 diabetes could reduce preventable cancer deaths.

Researchers have found that patients with diabetes have an increased risk of dying from pancreatic, colon or liver cancer. Women with type 2 also have a higher risk of dying from endometrial cancer

She said: “The findings highlight the growing cancer burden in people with type 2 diabetes, particularly in the elderly, and underline the need to prioritize cancer prevention, research and early detection and treatment in this population.

“This is particularly true for colon, pancreatic, liver and endometrial cancers, for which death rates were significantly higher in people with type 2 diabetes than in the general population.”

More than 4 million people in the UK live with type 2 diabetes and a further 13.5 million are at risk of developing the disease due to increasing obesity.

There is increasing evidence that type 2 diabetes can cause pancreatic, liver and endometrial cancer, but until now there has been little research on whether it affects overall cancer survival.

In this study, researchers analyzed trends in death from cancer and other causes based on age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, obesity, and smoking status, and then compared the rates in people with type 2 diabetes to those in the general population. They found that type 2 diabetes increased the risk of dying from cancer by 18 percent compared to the general population.

Morbidly obese and smokers both had a higher risk of dying from cancer, according to findings published in the journal Diabetologia.

Cancer Research UK’s DR Claire Bromley said: “Cancer survival is improving and has doubled in the UK over the last 40 years, but we must keep pushing further and faster to improve survival for all.

“There are many factors that influence whether a person is more likely to develop and die from cancer, and research like this that strengthens our understanding of these is essential to improving outcomes.”