Diabetes & Cancer: Not A Rare Combo These Days

Common Risk Factors Increase the Occurrence of Diabetes & Cancer Together

Entrapped with one disease is dreadful enough, but sometimes there are chances that one disease could be a risk factor for another serious diseases as well. Yes, we can smell double trouble sometimes! For instance, there have been serious discussions and promising results showing a concrete connection between diabetes and cancer since decades, but only recently we’ve been able to uncover the reason for their frequent twinning occurrence.
 
It’s no surprise that both diabetes and cancer have common risk factors but how they are linked has been a big question mark. We also have cases where diabetes treatment medications either increase or decrease the risk of cancer. While cancer remains as the second cause of death worldwide, diabetes is the 12th leading cause of death. The concurrent occurrence of diabetes and cancer together in a patient has been observed for more than 50 years but conclusive evidences on their link remained undiscovered.
 
“From Cancer to Diabetes” OR “From Diabetes to Cancer”
 
Since long, diabetes has been a potential risk factor for conditions such as stroke, heart attack, kidney diseases, and more. But now, it’s been proved to increase the risk of cancer too. In fact, individuals are being diagnosed with both, cancer and diabetes more frequently than what could be called a coincidence. A German physiologist was the pioneer in establishing a connection between cancer and diabetes as early as the 1930s. According to him, glucose was the main source of fuel for cancer cells which metabolized sugar at higher rates comparatively.
 
It was as early as the 1960s when studies associating both these diseases were conducted without affirmative conclusions. But during the recent years, different meta-analytic studies show evident data supporting that some types of cancers more commonly occur in people with diabetes. For instance, those suffering from type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk of colon, breast, bladder, and rectum cancer, some cancers such as that of the lung are not linked to diabetes, while some others show inconclusive results.
 
Such simultaneous occurrence of cancer and diabetes accelerates the death rates in patients but sadly, not much information is known about the underlying relationship between these two diseases.
 
Cancer Treatments Can Cause Diabetes
Also, patients with cancer who undergo treatment for the condition consume steroids, undergo chemotherapy, and take targeted therapy treatments. Hence, all these including stress due to the disease, diet, excess pain, and inflammation could be the cause for secondary diabetes.
 
There are some cancer treatments that can raise blood sugar levels or sometimes lower them. For instance, some forms of chemotherapy lead to rise in blood glucose levels. The steroids consumed for keeping cancer under control or to reduce the pain due to the disease might cause high blood sugar. Some forms of targeted therapies might affect the way in which insulin is used altering blood sugar levels.
 
Cancer treatment sometimes includes hormone therapies which are more commonly given in the case of breast and prostate cancer. The drugs used for this purpose have the potential to enhance blood sugar levels.  Radiation therapy might sometimes destroy the insulin-producing cells while treating the cancer cells.
 
Research Results Don’t Prove Us Wrong
 
One of the biggest studies done by researchers at the John Hopkins University in Baltimore and the University of Oxford in Great Britain reviewed 47 studies from around the world that contained a pool of information from more than 20 million individuals. This study done in 2018 clearly confirmed that women with diabetes are at a 27% increased risk of cancer and diabetic men have a 19% increased risk compared to the normal population.
 
Two predominant factors contribute to such high risks—the insulin hormone enabling control over glucose levels initiates cell growth that might lead to cancer. Also, overweight people develop higher levels of adipokines, a hormone instigating inflammation which in turn might lead to cancer.
 
Also, a 2018 study from the JAMA Oncology suggested that those with cancer are at a 6-times higher risk of diabetes not because of cancer but as a result of the treatment methodologies followed for treating the illness.
 
Another serious concern presented at the European Breast Cancer Conference showed that those with type 2 diabetes who succumb to cancer are diagnosed with the problem only during the disease’s advanced stage if the condition is not tested during regular checkups. Hence, individuals with metabolism disorders must take extra caution to test for other conditions and identify them at an early stage.
 
 Two Ailment But One Common Risk Factor
 
The risk factors that contribute towards cancer and diabetes are very similar and this causes more than 90% diabetes cases, a fact established by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). These factors include ageing, gender (men are at an increased risk for both the conditions), race, overweight/obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, and smoking. Obesity is a grave risk factor not only for diabetes but for the occurrence of numerous types of cancers including kidney, uterine, stomach cancer, and more.
 
The Bottomline
 
Suffering from two different diagnosis simultaneously is absolutely painful. But, on a positive note, diabetes could be controlled in different ways while we don’t have any power over cancer. The main requirement is to not lose hope. Adhering to better lifestyle changes, choosing healthy foods to eat, sleeping well, and performing physical activity regularly definitely helps in keeping diabetes under control. If you suffer from diabetes only, doing these changes automatically reduces your risk of cancer. But, prevention is always better than cure. Trying to stay away from diabetes does benefit doubly—else, increased blood glucose levels have the potential to alter the body’s DNA structure, reduce its repair potential, and the genome becomes unstable providing the perfect platform for the growth of cancer cells.
 
There is research happening continuously on the medication front too and the good news is that metformin, a commonly-used drug for diabetes can repair DNA, reduce blood glucose levels, and might have anti-cancer properties. Hence, do what’s in your control to minimize the risk of diabetes and cancer. Meet with a registered dietitian nutritionist to plan a healthy lifestyle and include wholesome foods in your everyday meal plan. Doing this will surely make you feel better emotionally and physically.