Incidence of head and neck cancer higher for those with diabetes

YouTube – courtesy Orange County Cyberknife
Oncology Center in Orange County

CANCER DIGEST – July 24, 2014 – A database analysis of 89,089 patients appears to show that diabetes increases the risk of head and neck cancer, according to a study in today’s JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.

The researchers at the Tainan University of Technology, Taiwan, used their country’s Longitudinal Health Insurance Research Database to examine the risk of head and neck cancers in patients with diabetes. While they did not distinguish between type 1 and type 2 in the study, all of the patients were newly diagnosed and the highest incidence of head and neck cancer was among those 40 to 65 years old. 

The authors compared 89,089 patients with and without diabetes-related health insurance claims in 2011. In the group with diabetes, 634 patients had head and neck cancer for a rate of 8.07 per 10,000 person-years. That compared to 447 patients who had head and neck cancer among those who did not have diabetes, for a rate of 5.50 per 10,000 person years. 

Overall that translates to an incidence of head and neck cancer among those with diabetes that is 1.47 times higher than those without diabetes. 

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