A study analyzed the effect of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) on the risk of death among women with breast cancer (BC). The findings were published in Cancer Causes & Control.
Researchers conducted a survival analysis was conducted among a cohort of 4,493 women diagnosed with BC between 2006 and 2012 in Spain. Biopsy or surgery confirmed BC cases were identified through a state cancer registry with information on patients’ characteristics and vital status. Physician-diagnosed T2DM was confirmed based on primary health care clinical history. The study adjusted for age, hospital size, several clinical characteristics, and treatment modalities.
According to the results, 28.9% BC women died during the completion of the follow-up and 17.5% died during the first five years after BC diagnosis, resulting in a five-year survival rate of 82.5%. The researchers observed that the death rate was higher in women with T2DM (43.8% died during whole period and 26.0% during the first five years) when compared with women without T2DM (27.5% and 16.7%, respectively).
Overall, the study showed that all-cause mortality was higher in women with T2DM (aHR = 1.22; 95% CI 1.03-1.44), especially if T2DM was diagnosed before BC (aHR = 1.24; 95% CI 1.03-1.50) and in women with BC diagnosed before 50 years (aHR = 2.38; 95% CI 1.04-5.48).
“T2DM was associated with higher all-cause mortality among Spanish women with BC, particularly when the T2DM diagnosis was prior to the BC,” the researchers concluded.
Keywords: Breast neoplasms, Diabetes mellitus, Female, Follow-up studies, Survival analysis, Type 2
