medwireNews: Research suggests that the increased risk for diabetes seen among survivors of early-stage breast cancer may be driven by hormone therapy.
During an average 5.9 years of follow-up of 2246 survivors of early-stage or regionally advanced invasive breast cancer, the prevalence of diabetes rose from 6% in 2002 to 28% in 2015, with the rate exceeding the national norm from 2010 to 2013.
In multivariate analysis of a subgroup of 57 patients with and 448 without diabetes, use of hormone therapy increased the likelihood for diabetes 2.4-fold, and the researchers calculated that it accounted for 48% of diabetes cases in the cohort overall.
Considering also “the high prevalence of diabetes above national standards [and] the dramatic increase in this prevalence within a relatively brief time,” breast cancer survivors who are given hormone therapy should be monitored for diabetes, advise Hatem Hamood and co-researchers from the Leumit Health Centre in Karmiel, Israel.
Their findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
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