Cancer incidence in persons with type 1 diabetes: a five-country study of 9,000 cancers in type 1 diabetic individuals

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: An excess cancer incidence of 20-25% has been identified among persons with diabetes, most of whom have type 2 diabetes. We aimed to describe the association between type 1 diabetes and cancer incidence. METHODS: Persons with type 1 diabetes were identified from five nationwide diabetes registers: Australia (2000-2008), Denmark (1995-2014), Finland (1972-2012), Scotland (1995-2012) and Sweden (1987-2012). Linkage to national cancer registries provided the numbers of incident cancers in people with type 1 diabetes and in the general population. We used Poisson models with adjustment for age and date of follow up to estimate hazard ratios for total and site-specific cancers. RESULTS: A total of 9,149 cancers occurred among persons with type 1 diabetes in 3.9 million person-years. The median age at cancer diagnosis was 51.1 years (interquartile range 43.5-59.5). The hazard ratios (HRs) (95% CIs) associated with type 1 diabetes for all cancers combined were 1.01 (0.98, 1.04) among men and 1.07 (1.04, 1.10) among women. HRs were increased for cancer of the stomach (men, HR 1.23 1.04, 1.46; women, HR 1.78 1.49, 2.13), liver (men, HR 2.00 1.67, 2.40; women, HR 1.55 1.14, 2.10), pancreas (men, HR 1.53 1.30, 1.79; women, HR 1.25 1.02,1.53), endometrium (HR 1.42 1.27, 1.58) and kidney (men, HR 1.30 1.12, 1.49; women, HR 1.47 1.23, 1.77). Reduced HRs were found for cancer of the prostate (HR 0.56 0.51, 0.61) and breast (HR 0.90 0.85, 0.94). HRs declined with increasing diabetes duration. CONCLUSION: Type 1 diabetes was associated with differences in the risk of several common cancers; the strength of these associations varied with the duration of diabetes.