Reduced risk of prostate cancer among patients with diabetes mellitus

✍ Scribed by Elisabete Weiderpass; Weimin Ye; Harri Vainio; Rudolf Kaaks; Hans-Olov Adami

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 70 KB
• Volume: 102
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.10685

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Although diabetes mellitus is associated with an increased risk of several malignancies, a negative association with prostate cancer is biologically most plausible. The epidemiologic evidence is, however, inconsistent, limited and based mostly on small studies. We present results from a large, population‐based cohort study in Sweden, where we assessed prostate cancer risk among patients hospitalized for diabetes mellitus. The cohort was composed of patients identified in the Swedish In‐Patient Register as having a hospital discharge diagnosis of diabetes mellitus in 1965–1994. The follow‐up was done by linkages with the national cancer register and other population‐based registers. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs), with 95% confidence interval (CI), were used as a measure of relative risk. After complete exclusion of the first year of follow‐up (to avoid selection bias), 135,950 men remained in the cohort, contributing 827,099 years of follow‐up to the study. A total of 2,455 incident cases of primary prostate cancer were identified during 1–31 years of follow‐up, yielding an overall SIR of 0.91 (95% CI 0.87–0.94); this risk reduction was more pronounced among patients who have been hospitalized for diabetic complications (SIR = 0.82; 95% CI 0.74–0.91). We found no consistent trends in risk related to age at first hospitalization or to duration of follow‐up. We did find a small, but significantly decreased risk of prostate cancer among men who had been hospitalized for diabetes mellitus. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.