ABSTRACT
Studies have revealed that diabetes mellitus puts patients at a higher risk for a variety of different cancers. For example, most cases of pancreatic cancer are linked to diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance. Abnormal glucose homeostasis may be an important underlying factor. Obesity is a common risk factor for both diabetes and cancer, and increases the likelihood of death when both conditions are present. The mortality of cancer patients with pre-existing diabetes is higher in relation to non-diabetic patients for all cancer combined, and for most individual cancers. The pro-inflammatory environment that is present encourages the development of these conditions. Diabetes doubles the risk of pancreatic, liver, and endometrial cancer, and increases risks of colorectal, breast, and bladder cancer. Treatments for cancer such as chemotherapy can complicate the treatments required for diabetes. Therefore, diabetic patients require careful monitoring and adjustments of their medications for diabetes. This is essential for diabetic patients with cancer to be effectively treated for both conditions, and to reduce the likelihood of severe morbidity and death. Also, diabetes lowers the patient’s ability to be able to battle cancer and also increases the likelihood of severe infections. Therefore, multidisciplinary teams are usually required in order to manage concurrent diabetes and cancer.
