Diabetes may up cancer risk in women, study finds

NEW YORK Women with Type 2 diabetes may be more likely to develop certain cancers, a new study found.

Although the incidence of prostate cancer in men can drop if they are Type 2 diabetics, a new study -- led by Gabriel Chodick and Varda Shalev of Tel Aviv University's department of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine -- found that out of 16,721 diabetics, the researchers documented 1,639 cases of different cancers among people with diabetes, and compared them with occurrences of the same cancers in the healthy nondiabetic population -- a sample of 83,874 people.

The study, which took place over a course of eight years, was published in the journal Cancer Causes & Control.

"The interaction of diabetes and female hormones appears to exaggerate the risk, and make certain organs like the uterus and ovaries more receptive to certain kinds of cancer," Chodick said, noting that while diabetics should discuss risk of developing other diseases with physicians, doctors always will take long-term health histories into consideration.