Diabetes Ups Risk of Developing Head and Neck Cancer

Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) appear to have a 50% greater likelihood of developing head and neck cancer (HNC) than individuals without diabetes, according to a recent study.

Past studies have showed that various cancers are more common in patients with DM. However, the risk of HNC in patients with diabetes mellitus had never been researched.
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Researchers used Taiwan’s Health Insurance Research Database to evaluate HNC risk in patients suffering from DM; they compared 89,089 patients newly diagnosed with DM to the same number of control patients without DM and matched them by age, sex, obesity, coronary artery disease, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension.

Participants were assessed from the date of their diabetes diagnosis until the end of their follow-up year on December 31, 2011.

The study showed that HNC incidence was 1.47 times greater in patients newly diagnosed with DM compared to the control groups (P<0.001).  According to researchers, the increase was due to HNC in the oral cavity (0.41%), including cancers of the oropharynx, and nasopharynx.

The authors noted that it is important to monitoring patients with DM for head and neck cancer in the future.

The complete study is published in the July issue of the JAMA Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.

-Michelle Canales

References:

Tseng KS, Lin C, Lin YS, et al. Risk of head and neck cancer in patients with diabetes mellitus. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2014 July [epub ahead of print] doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2014.1258.

The JAMA Network Journals. Increased risk for head, neck cancers in patients with diabetes. July 24, 2014. www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/tjnj-irf072314.php. Accessed July 25, 2014.