A simple blood test could one day be used to help identify people with type 2 diabetes who are at risk of developing certain cancers, a study has suggested. Pinpointing patients at a higher risk would allow for targeted monitoring and early detection of cancer, researchers said. Type 2 diabetics face a higher risk of obesity-related cancers such as breast, kidney, uterus, ovarian and thyroid, as well as gastrointestinal cancers and multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer .
Danish researchers suggest this may be down to chronic low-grade inflammation, which is common in obese people and in those with type 2 diabetes. To explore this further, the team analysed levels of immune system proteins known as proinflammatory cytokines in 6,466 people involved in the Danish Centre for Strategic Research in Diabetes (DD2), an ongoing study of patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. Levels of small proteins known as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) were measured at the start of the study, as well as high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), a protein made by the liver which increases with inflammation in the body.
Patients were grouped into three categories based on these levels – low, middle and high – and followed for a median of 8.8 years, during which 327 developed obesity-related cancer. The study found IL-6 levels were associated with higher obesity-related cancer risk.
Mathilde Dahlin Bennetsen, of the Steno Diabetes Centre Odense in .