A Simple Blood Test May Predict Cancer Risk in T2D

TOPLINE:
MADRID — Elevated interleukin (IL) 6 levels are associated with an increased risk for obesity-related cancers in patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (T2D), potentially enabling the identification of higher-risk individuals through a simple blood test.
METHODOLOGY:
T2D is associated with an increased risk for obesity-related cancers, including breast, renal, uterine, thyroid, ovarian, and gastrointestinal cancers, as well as multiple myeloma, possibly because of chronic low-grade inflammation.
Researchers explored whether the markers of inflammation IL-6, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) can serve as predictive biomarkers for obesity-related cancers in patients recently diagnosed with T2D.
They identified patients with recent-onset T2D and no prior history of cancer participating in the ongoing Danish Centre for Strategic Research in Type 2 Diabetes cohort study.
At study initiation, plasma levels of IL-6 and TNF-α were measured using Meso Scale Discovery assays, and serum levels of hsCRP were measured using immunofluorometric assays.
TAKEAWAY:
Among 6466 eligible patients (40.5% women; median age, 60.9 years), 327 developed obesity-related cancers over a median follow-up of 8.8 years.
Each SD increase in log-transformed IL-6 levels increased the risk for obesity-related cancers by 19%.
The researchers did not find a strong association between TNF-α or hsCRP and obesity-related cancers.
The addition of baseline IL-6 levels to other well-known risk factors for obesity-related cancers improved the performance of a cancer prediction model from 0.685 to 0.693, translating to a small but important increase in the ability to predict whether an individual would develop one of these cancers.
IN PRACTICE:
“In future, a simple blood test could identify those at higher risk of the cancers,” said the study’s lead author in an accompanying press release.
SOURCE:
The study was led by Mathilde D. Bennetsen, Steno Diabetes Center Odense, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark, and published online on August 27 as an early release from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2024 Annual Meeting.
LIMITATIONS:
No limitations were discussed in this abstract. However, the reliance on registry data may have introduced potential biases related to data accuracy and completeness.
DISCLOSURES:
The Danish Centre for Strategic Research in Type 2 Diabetes was supported by grants from the Danish Agency for Science and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
 
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