(HealthDay News) — Having diabetes mellitus increases breast cancer and colorectal cancer incidence and cancer-specific mortality, according to research presented at the 2013 European Cancer Congress, held from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 in Amsterdam.
Kirstin De Bruijn, from the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a literature review to identify studies that evaluated the relationship between diabetes mellitus and breast and colorectal cancer incidence and cancer-specific mortality.
Based on 20 studies (1,930,309 patients), the researchers found that there was an overall hazard ratio (HR) of 1.23 for breast cancer incidence and 1.26 for colorectal cancer incidence. The HRs for cancer-specific mortality for breast and colorectal cancer were 1.38 and 1.30, respectively. The studies showed no evidence of publication bias or heterogeneity.
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“With the expected rise in numbers of obese and diabetes mellitus patients, awareness and prevention should be incremented,” the authors write. “Otherwise, incidences and mortality rates of two of the most common cancers will only tend to increase.”
