Type 2 diabetes associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal Diabetes Care, researchers from the Utrecht University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Utrecht, the Netherlands, have found that type 2 diabetes is associated with a moderately increased risk of colorectal cancer.

For the study, researchers sought to investigate the risk of colorectal cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes and to assess whether treatment stage and duration of obesity affect that risk.

They identified 2,759 patients with type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer after a median follow-up of 4.5 years from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. All patients were on at least one prescription drug for type 2 diabetes. Results showed that type 2 diabetes was linked with a 1.3-fold increased risk for developing colorectal cancer (HR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.18 - 1.33).

There was no association between treatment stages and colorectal cancer risk, but patients with obesity for 4 to 8 years (HR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.06 - 1.34) and those with obesity for more than 8 years (HR = 1.28; 95% CI: 1.11 - 1.49) had a significantly increased risk of colorectal cancer.

The findings suggest that patients with type 2 diabetes, especially those who have been obese for 4 or more years, have an increased risk for developing colorectal cancer.