A new study investigating the correlation between daily insulin dose and cancer incidence showed that higher insulin dose positively correlates with cancer incidence in people with Type 1 diabetes. It shows that the association is higher for those with insulin resistance.
The study titled "Daily Insulin Dose and Cancer Risk Among Patients With Type 1 Diabetes" published in the journal Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology, unveiled that obesity, sugar control, and blood pressure control are not associated with cancer risk in patients with Type 1 diabetes.
Women With Type 1 Diabetes Have Higher Risk of Cancer
The team analyzed the associations of over 50 common risk factors of cancer, like alcohol use, exercise, family history, medication, metabolic risk factors, and smoking, from the data collected within 28 years among 1,303 patients with type 1 diabetes.
According to the news outlet DNA, the team found that age and sex are associated with cancer risk when evaluated separately and that daily insulin use has a higher risk of developing the disease than age.
Furthermore, they found that women have higher chances of getting cancer compared to men. However, the risk contributing factor has remained unclear.
"However, cancer incidence was higher for those who took large doses of insulin," said Yuanjie Mao, assistant clinical professor at Ohio University in the US.
He suggested that clinicians should be able to balance potential cancer risk when treating type 1 diabetes when prescribing daily insulin dosage or just improving insulin sensitivity rather than increasing the insulin dose.
Researchers noted that this is the first study to explore the correlation between cancer risk factors and type 1 diabetes, which accounts for 5% to 10% of all diabetes cases. Previous research concluded that patients with this type of diabetes have higher cancer risks than the general population.
On the other hand, type 2 diabetes increases the risk of cancer due to metabolic factors like chronic inflammation, obesity, and insulin resistance.
Most Commonly Reported Cancer Types Due to Higher Daily Insulin Dose
The Endocrinology Network reports that out of the 1,303 patients in the study, 7% of them developed cancer after years of follow-up. The mean age they first got diagnosed was 50 years old and the mean duration of having diabetes was 25 years.
Meanwhile, the most commonly reported type of cancers included breast, digestive, reproductive, and skin cancers. Out of the 7% of patients that developed cancer, which is equivalent to 93 people, 61% of them were female. Among them, 9% had cancer within 10 years, 33% were diagnosed with cancer between 11 and 20 years, and the rest developed cancer between 21 and 28 years.
Researchers noted that their first model had time-dependent variables and added daily insulin dose in their second model as a fixed variable, wherein participants were classified into low-, medium-, or high-dose groups.
The model shows that a high daily dose was associated with six times the increase in cancer incidence, while the second model shows that the use of a high daily insulin dose is linked to a four times increase in cancer incidence. But researchers cautioned clinicians to consider limitations within their study before making the mistake of overinterpretation of results.
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