Middle-aged men with type 2 diabetes at heightened risk of pancreatic cancer
11 Mar 2020
Middle-aged men who have type 2 diabetes (T2D) have an excess risk of pancreatic cancer, according to a study, suggesting that this population may be potential candidates for cancer screening.
The study involved about 34.2 million individuals who underwent a biennial or annual evaluation provided by the National Health Insurance Service Database of Claims between 2006 and 2015.
In the cohort, 28.5 million individuals were aged ≥30 years and 1,662,440 had T2D cases in 2006, and 34.2 million and 3,414,184 individuals in 2015, respectively. T2D prevalence increased annually by 0.3–0.5 percent, rising from 5.8 percent in 2006 to 10.0 percent in 2015.
The annual incidence rate (IR) of pancreatic cancer was 5.96 per 100,000 persons per year in 2006 and increased to 8.92 per 100,000 persons per year in 2015. The incidence showed an increasing trend with age (ptrend<0.0001), and the incidence rate ratio was about 1.5-fold higher in males than in females for all ages. Also, the IR of pancreatic cancer in patients with T2D aged between 50 and 59 years was markedly higher than that in those without diabetes (15.8 vs 7.6 per 100,000 persons per year).
Finally, the IR of diabetic men aged 50–59 years did not significantly differ from that in diabetic women aged 60–69 years (19.1 vs 20.2 per 100,000 persons per year, respectively) but was greater than that in nondiabetic women aged 60–69 years (17.0 per 100,000 persons per year).
The present data show that over a 10-year study period, T2D is associated with a significantly increased risk of pancreatic cancer, with the association being especially pronounced in middle-aged populations and diabetic men, according to researchers.