(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- People with diabetes who undergo cancer surgery are
more likely to die in the month following their operations.
A new study finds that newly diagnosed cancer patients -- particularly those
with colorectal or esophageal tumors -- who also have type 2 diabetes have a 50
percent greater risk of death following surgery. Roughly 20 million Americans,
or about 7 percent of the population, are believed to have diabetes, and the
numbers continue to grow.
"Diabetic patients, their oncologists and their surgeons should be aware of the
increased risk when they have cancer surgery," study leader Hsin-Chieh "Jessica"
Yeh, Ph.D., assistant professor of general internal medicine and epidemiology at
the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was quoted as saying. "Care of
diabetes before, during and after surgery is very important. It should be part
of the preoperative discussion.”
"When people are diagnosed with cancer, the focus often is exclusively on
cancer, and diabetes management may be forgotten," Dr. Yeh said. "This research
suggests the need to keep a dual focus."
The risk picture presented by Dr. Yeh and her colleagues emerged from a
meta-analysis of 15 previously published medical studies that included
information about diabetes status and mortality among patients after cancer
surgery. Dr. Yeh said the analysis could not determine why cancer patients with
diabetes are at greater risk of death after surgery.
Some say one culprit could be infection.
"Both cancer and diabetes involve inflammation and infection," Kelly O'Connor,
R.D./L.D.N., of the Diabetes Center and Oncology at Mercy Medical Center in
Baltimore, Md., who is not associated with the study, told Ivanhoe. "Diabetes
increases the risk of many diseases and affects almost every part of the body.
If your blood sugar is not in control, I think recovery from any kind of surgery
would be an issue."
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Kelly O'Connor, R.D./L.D.N.; Diabetes Care,
April 2010
