Diabetics might have lower risk of prostate cancer, new study shows
A new American Cancer Society report says that men with diabetes seem to have a reduced risk of developing prostate cancer. The society's study tracked 72,000 men from 1992 to 2002 and found that men diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were less likely to also be diagnosed later with prostate cancer. Scientists say a drop in insulin levels among diabetes patients may be key to the lowered risk.
* Men with type 2 diabetes seem to be less likely to develop prostate cancer, overall, a new study indicates.
* "One previous study has suggested that diabetes may decrease risk of prostate cancer but only several years after diagnosis of diabetes," Dr. Carmen Rodriguez and colleagues from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta note in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
* The researchers examined the relationship between the time of diabetes diagnosis and the risk of prostate cancer among some 72,000 men enrolled in the Cancer Prevention Study II.
* By 2002, a total of 5318 men had been documented with prostate cancer, while a total of 10,053 men reported a physician-diagnosis of diabetes.
* "Diabetes was associated with lower prostate cancer incidence rates after adjustment for age, race, education, and prostate-specific antigen testing," the researchers report.
* Men who were diagnosed with diabetes within the last three years had slightly higher rates of prostate cancer compared to non-diabetic men, but those who had diabetes for at least four years had a one-third lower rate of prostate cancer.