Type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality. Men with type 2 diabetes are at increased risk for death from prostate cancer (PCa) or from any cause, Canadian researchers reported in Cancer Causes & Control.

A team led by Laurent Azoulay, MD, of McGill University in Montreal, studied 11,920 men newly diagnosed with non-metastatic PCa. The cohort included 1,132 men (9.5%) with pre-existing type 2 diabetes. A total of 3,605 deaths, including 1,792 from PCa, occurred during a mean 4.7 years of follow-up. Patients with type 2 diabetes had a 23% increased risk of PCa mortality and 25% increased risk of all-cause mortality, compared with non-diabetics, after adjusting for potential confounders, including smoking, excessive alcohol use, comorbidities, and PCa-related variables.

The authors are of the opinion that the findings “may signal an association between hyperinsulinemia or other diabetes-associated metabolic derangements and cancer complications.

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