Duration of Type 2 Diabetes and Incidence of Cancer: An Observational Study in England
Authors' conclusion
In this study, we did not find evidence of an association between duration of type 2 diabetes and risk of cancer, with the higher risk observed for longer durations related to ageing.
Study context
- Population
- Individuals with T2D aged ≥35 years at diagnosis, Clinical Practice Research Datalink, linked to hospital and mortality records, 1998–2019
- Participants
- 130,764 individuals1,089,923 person-years
- Exposure
- 20 vs 5 years of T2D duration, at the same age
- Outcome
- Incidence of all cancers by age and diabetes duration
Methodological detailssex-stratified Royston-Parmar models with two timescales
- Sex-stratified Royston-Parmar models with two timescales
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
All-cancer incidence rate ratio, 20 vs 5 years duration
Estimate (95% CI)
20 years durationvs 5 years duration
rate ratio, men at 60 years 1.18(0.82–1.69)
20 years durationvs 5 years duration
rate ratio, men at 80 years 0.90(0.75–1.08)
20 years durationvs 5 years duration
rate ratio, women at 60 years 1.07(0.71–1.63)
20 years durationvs 5 years duration
rate ratio, women at 80 years 0.84(0.66–1.05)
- Incident cancers
- 18,977
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Four commonest cancers (colorectal, lung, prostate, breast)
- Same pattern: no variation with duration at the same age
Obesity-related cancers
- Rates generally higher with higher BMI; no association with duration at any BMI level
Parts of this Brief are withheld: the automatic checks could not confirm them against the abstract.
Original publication
Duration of Type 2 Diabetes and Incidence of Cancer: An Observational Study in England. Diabetes Care. Published 28 August 2023. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →