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Meta-Analysis
. 2016 Dec;95(49):e5602.
doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000005602.

Diabetes mellitus and prognosis in women with breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Xiao-Bo Zhao  1 , Guo-Sheng Ren
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Diabetes mellitus and prognosis in women with breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Xiao-Bo Zhao et al. Medicine (Baltimore). 2016 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, but studies of the effects of diabetes on the prognosis of women with breast cancer have yielded inconsistent findings. The present meta-analysis aimed to investigate the impact of preexisting diabetes on the prognosis in terms of overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and relapse-free period (RFP) in women with breast cancer.

Methods: We searched the Embase and PubMed databases until June 2016 for cohort or case-control studies assessing the impact of diabetes on the prognosis of women with breast cancer. The pooled multivariate adjusted hazard ratio (HR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for OS, DFS, and RFP were used to analyze the impact of diabetes on the prognosis of breast cancer patients.

Results: Seventeen studies involving 48,315 women with breast cancer met our predefined inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that the pooled adjusted HR was 1.51 (95% CI 1.34-1.70) for OS and 1.28 (95% CI 1.09-1.50) for DFS in breast cancer patients with diabetes compared to those without diabetes. However, RFP did not differ significantly between patients with and without diabetes (HR 1.42; 95% CI 0.90-2.23).

Conclusions: The present meta-analysis suggests that preexisting diabetes is independently associated with poor OS and DFS in female breast cancer patients. However, the impact of diabetes on RFP should be further verified. More prospective studies are warranted to investigate whether appropriate glycemic control with modification of antihyperglycemic agents can improve the prognosis of female breast cancer patients with diabetes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of study selection process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plots showing HR and 95% CI of overall survival in female breast cancer patients with diabetes compared with those without diabetes. CI = confidence interval, HR = hazard ratio.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Funnel plots based on overall survival. HR = hazard ratio, SE = standard error.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Forest plots showing HR and 95% CI of disease-free survival in female breast cancer patients with diabetes compared with those without diabetes. CI = confidence interval, HR = hazard ratio.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Forest plots showing HR and 95% CI of relapse-free period in female breast cancer patients with diabetes compared with those without diabetes. CI = confidence interval, HR = hazard ratio.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Funnel plots based on relapse-free period. HR = hazard ratio, SE = standard error.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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