Type 1 diabetes linked to increased risk of various types of cancer: Study

Researchers from The European Association for the Study of Diabetes have found that type 1 diabetes was linked with increased risk of various cancer types including cancers of the stomach, liver, pancreas, endometrium, ovary and kidney. They however, had a reduced risk of other cancer types, including prostate and breast cancer.

According to the study, the overall cancer risk among men with type 1 diabetes was largely due to a 44-per cent decreased incidence of prostate cancer, the most common non-skin cancer among men.

When data for sex-specific cancer types (prostate, testis, breast, cervix, endometrium and ovary), was excluded, the researchers found excess cancer risk in both men and women with type 1 diabetes (15 per cent for men and 17 per cent for women).

The study further revealed that people with type 1 diabetes, ran increased risk of cancers of the stomach (23 per cent for men, 78 per cent for women); liver (two-fold among men, 55 per cent for women); pancreas (53 per cent for men, 25 per cent for women), endometrium (42 per cent ) and kidney (30 per cent for men, 47 per cent for women).

Meanwhile scientists from Exeter scientists have revealed that children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, before the age of seven developed a more aggressive form of the disease than that seen in teenagers. The research could lead to  new, differing, treatments for both teenagers and young children and perhaps help scientists develop a vaccine that could prevent children developing diabetes.

The team which worked along with scientists from the University of Oslo, analysed 100 pancreas samples from people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes shortly before their death. The team from Exeter was led by professor Noel Morgan and Dr Sarah Richardson.

According to Richardson, a JDRF career development fellow, "those samples are extremely important because we do not understand the underlying disease process that goes on in these individuals and it's that recent diagnosis that's critical for us to actually look inside the pancreas and see what is going wrong, and the pancreas itself is an extremely inaccessible organ," Reuters reported.