Study: Some Women With Type 2 Diabetes at Higher Risk of Breast Cancer

Postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes appear to have a slightly increased risk of developing breast cancer, according to Harvard University researchers.

The results, drawn from more than 100,000 women participating in the ongoing Nurses' Health Study, showed that type 2 diabetics were 17 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than those without diabetes.

The link between diabetes and breast cancer was found among postmenopausal women but not premenopausal women, the researchers reported in the journal Diabetes Care. The link also was strongest among women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

Insulin resistance, which is characteristic of type 2 diabetes, has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer.

"Women with type 2 diabetes had a modestly elevated incidence of breast cancer compared with women without diabetes, independent of age, obesity, family history of breast cancer, history of benign breast disease, reproductive factors, physical activity, and alcohol consumption," the researchers concluded.

Other Sources: Diabetes Care