This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
LDL levels may be linked to cancer risk in type 2 diabetes
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Patients with type 2 diabetes and low or high LDL levels may be at an increased risk for cancer, according to recent data.
According to researchers from the Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the relationship between LDL and cancer is represented by a V-shaped curve in patients with diabetes.
Using the Hong Kong Diabetes Registry, the researchers analyzed 6,107 patients with type 2 diabetes — 3,800 were statin users and 2,307 were non-users.
Two-hundred-seventy patients (4.4%) developed cancer at a median follow-up of 4.9 years. Among statin nonusers, the researchers reported a V-shaped curve that represented the relationship between LDL and cancer.
The risk for cancer, death from any cause and the combined outcome of cancer or death was greater in patients whose LDL levels were 3.8 mmol/L or greater (HR=1.87; 95% CI, 1.29-2.71) or lower than 2.8 mmol/L (HR=1.74; 95% CI, 1.20-2.52).
Using an LDL level of 3.8 mmol/L as a reference point, the researchers reported that each millimole per liter absolute change in LDL yielded a HR for cancer of 1.54 (95% CI, 1.19-1.99) among patients not using statins. When they included both statin users and non-users, the ratio was reduced to 1.24 (95% CI, 1.01-1.53).
CMAJ. 2008;179:427-437.