Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: The aim of the present study is to determine the effects of the diabetes mellitus (DM) treatment regimens on malignancy retrospectively.

Material-Method: 655 DM patients were enrolled in this study. Patients receiving diabetes therapies for at least one year were assessed with physical examination, detailed medical and family history, habits, demographic characteristics and laboratory tests and divided into two groups according to the diabetes treatment type (using oral agent or insulin and using metformin or not). Insulin users were grouped according to insulin regimens (intensive, basal and mixed) and the insulin type (glargine, detemir, human insulin, biphasic analogue). Cancer cases were identified at the first visit. And if there was a cancer suspicion, clinical examination was made for clearing the diagnose. Patients who have not administrative data of cancer or benign tumor and diagnosis of cancer before date of diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, were excluded from the study.

Results: 655 DM patients with 13 (%2) Type 1 DM, 642 (%98) Type 2 DM, 379 (%58) female, 276 (%42) male were enrolled. 36 cancers (4 colorectal, 1 lung, 4 larinx, 1 biliary duct, 5 breast, 4 prostate, 4 bladder, 3 leukemia/lymphoma, 1 urogenital, 2 hepatic, 5 thyroid, 1 renal, and 1 unknown origin) and 76 benign tumors were observed. Patients with and without a cancer were compared for diabetes treatment regimens and types of agents. No significant differences was observed between groups using oral agent or insulin (p:0.429) and using metformin or not (p:0.119). Also no significant differences was observed between groups according to insulin regimens (p:0.059) and the insulin type (p:0.418).

Conclusion: Between the types of pharmacological treatments of diabetes, there was not any significant differences in regard to cancer risk. But in subgroup analysis, patients using metformin had lower rates of benign tumor compared to metformin non-users.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.