Blood Cancers More Frequent in Individuals with Type II Diabetes

The increased incidence of chromosome fragments called clonal mosaic events (CMEs) in blood cells creates a much higher risk of developing cancer, especially blood cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia, for individuals with type II diabetes than for healthy persons.

Previous studies have linked CMEs to aging and the tendency to develop cancer. Since type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been conceptualized as an accelerated-aging disease that is associated with higher prevalence of cancers, investigators at Imperial College London (United Kingdom) assessed the association between T2D and CME occurrence in blood.

The investigators use DNA microarray technology to analyze blood samples from 7,437 participants in genetic studies in Europe, including 2,208 people with type II diabetes.

They reported a significant association between CME occurrence and T2D that was stronger when we only non-obese individuals with T2D were considered. In CME carriers, they found an increase in the percentage of abnormal (precancerous or cancerous) cells over six years. Furthermore, CME carriers with T2D had higher prevalence of vascular complications than noncarriers with T2D.

"Type II diabetes is a disease that accelerates aging, so we wondered if it would make people more likely to have these genetic defects that are associated with aging," said senior author Dr. Philippe Froguel, professor of genomic medicine at Imperial College London. "This finding may partly explain why people with type II diabetes are more likely to get blood cancers. It could have profound clinical implications. It may be useful for doctors to test for CMEs in patients with type II diabetes to identify those who have the highest risk of cancers. These patients would be followed up closely to watch for early signs of leukemia and could start having mild chemotherapy."

The study was published in the July 14, 2013, online edition of the journal Nature Genetics.

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