Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Apr;13(2):213-22.
doi: 10.1007/s11892-012-0356-6.

The links between insulin resistance, diabetes, and cancer

Etan Orgel  1 , Steven D Mittelman
Affiliations
Review

The links between insulin resistance, diabetes, and cancer

Etan Orgel et al. Curr Diab Rep. 2013 Apr.

Abstract

The growing epidemic of obesity has resulted in a large increase in multiple related diseases. Recent evidence has strengthened the proposed synergistic relationship between obesity-related insulin resistance (IR) and/or diabetes mellitus (DM) and cancer. Within the past year, many studies have examined this relationship. Although the precise mechanisms and pathways are uncertain, it is becoming clear that hyperinsulinemia and possibly sustained hyperglycemia are important regulators of not only the development of cancer but also of treatment outcome. Further, clinical decision-making regarding the treatment of choice for DM will likely be impacted as we learn more about the non-metabolic effects of the available hyperglycemic agents. In our review, we endeavored to synthesize the recent literature and provide a concise view of the journey from macro-level clinical associations to specific mechanistic relationships being elucidated in cell lines and animal models.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure

No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. GDM A Statistical Study in Cancer Death Rates. Biometrika. 1910;7:276–304.
    1. Eheman C, Henley SJ, Ballard-Barbash R, Jacobs EJ, Schymura MJ, Noone AM, Pan L, Anderson RN, Fulton JE, Kohler BA, Jemal A, Ward E, Plescia M, Ries LA, Edwards BK. Annual Report to the Nation on the status of cancer, 1975–2008, featuring cancers associated with excess weight and lack of sufficient physical activity. Cancer. 2012;118:2338–2366. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Boyle JP, Thompson TJ, Gregg EW, Barker LE, Williamson DF. Projection of the year 2050 burden of diabetes in the US adult population: dynamic modeling of incidence, mortality, and prediabetes prevalence. Popul Health Metr. 2010;8:29. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Danaei G, Finucane MM, Lu Y, Singh GM, Cowan MJ, Paciorek CJ, Lin JK, Farzadfar F, Khang YH, Stevens GA, Rao M, Ali MK, Riley LM, Robinson CA, Ezzati M, GBoMRFoCDCGB National, regional, and global trends in fasting plasma glucose and diabetes prevalence since 1980: systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with 370 country-years and 2·7 million participants. Lancet. 2011;378:31–40. - PubMed
    1. Whiting DR, Guariguata L, Weil C, Shaw J. IDF diabetes atlas: global estimates of the prevalence of diabetes for 2011 and 2030. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2011;94:311–321. - PubMed