Cancer deaths more common among older adults with type 2 diabetes
2 min read . Updated: 25 Jan 2023, 12:25 PM IST
PremiumThere is an increase in cancer-related mortality rates for persons with type 2 diabetes between the ages of 75 and 85.
A UK study found that cancer mortality was more common among older adults with type 2 diabetes in recent years.
All-cause mortality rates decreased across all age categories in a cohort of more than 137,000 people with type 2 diabetes from 1998 to 2018. This was contrasted by an increase in cancer-related mortality rates for persons with type 2 diabetes between the ages of 75 and 85.
There appeared to be an upward increase in the cancer death rates for present or former smokers (0.6% and 3.4%, respectively), as well as for white people (2.4%), but there looked to be a negative trend for nonsmokers (-1.4%) and other ethnic groups (-3.4%).
The average annual percentage change (AAPC) in the cancer mortality rate was 1.2% for people with diabetes 75 and older, and 1.6% for people 85 and older throughout the median follow-up of 8.4 years. On the other side, cancer mortality decreased annually by 1.4% and 0.2% for people aged 55 and 65, respectively.
Cancer mortality for women increased by 1.5% AAPC, compared to a 0.5% rise for men. According to the authors, For most of the 1998–2018 period, males had higher cancer mortality rates and a higher percentage of cancer deaths, while the gap between the sexes began to close about 2012–2014 and has since widened.
People with morbid obesity (BMI 35 or higher) experienced one of the biggest annual increases of 5.8%, according to their analysis of who was most affected by the rising cancer mortality rate, observes a group of researchers, led by Dr Suping Ling of the University of Leicester in England, In contrast, type 2 diabetics with normal body weights (BMI 18.5-24.9) only experienced an average rise of 0.7%.
In this diabetes-afflicted cohort, several patterns in cancer-specific mortality have been observed. From 1998 to 2018, individuals with type 2 diabetes had considerably higher standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) than the general population for a number of cancer types.