Pregnant women with blood sugar level problems at higher cancer risk - new study suggests

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 12 Jan 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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New research suggests that the many women who have problems during their pregnancies to maintain normal blood sugar levels may be increasing their long-term risk of developing cancer (especially breast cancer).

It has already been suggested that there is a link between diabetes and cancer risk. It was unclear, however, whether mild sugar problems during pregnancy would increase cancer risk.

Dr. Shelagh Dawson (University of Otago, Christchurch, N Zealand) monitored 753 women. He was studying the effect of a mother's sugar levels on the developing baby. He analysed the data to see how many of the mothers were admitted to hospital with a cancer diagnosis (during the study period).

4.5% of the women (34 women) were diagnosed with cancer. Of those, 18 had breast cancer.

His findings suggest that the women who had the most difficulty in controlling their blood sugar levels had the greatest risk.

He found that the women with the worst control (of blood sugar levels during pregnancy) could be 11 times more likely to develop breast cancer (than those with normal sugar levels).

Dawson said 'These results are in keeping with studies that suggest that many (cancers) are associated with altered (sugar) metabolism,'

The researchers' findings are reported in the medical journal Cancer

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