A new study shows that people no longer care for their diabetes treatment after diagnosing cancer and give importance only for cancer treatment. But the fact is uncontrolled high blood sugar weakens their immune systems and is more likely to kill them than cancer.

The study, published in the journal Population Health Management, also showed that diabetics who received education about diabetes management after they were diagnosed with cancer were more likely to keep their blood sugar under control. They had fewer admissions to hospitals and emergency rooms, and their health care costs were also lower. People with diabetes have a higher incidence of liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer and endometrial cancer.

For the study, researchers examined five years of health records for 166,000 commercial insurance patients and 56,000 Medicare Advantage patients. They found 65.2 percent of cancer patients who received diabetes education had their hemoglobin A1c tested at least twice, and 88 percent had it tested at least once over three years. The numbers were significantly lower for patients who did not receive diabetes education; 48 percent of that group had hemoglobin A1c tested twice and 78 percent had it tested once over a period of three years. Ideally, hemoglobin A1c should be tested every four months.