The new finding sent scientists scrambling for answers

Oct 17, 2011 09:41 GMT  ·  By
Lung cancer survival rates are higher in patients who also suffer from diabetes
   Lung cancer survival rates are higher in patients who also suffer from diabetes

In a paper published in the latest issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, researchers underline a baffling connection between lung cancer survival rates and diabetes. It would appear that people who were also diagnosed with the latter live longer than lung cancer patients without diabetes.

In the new study, Norwegian investigators looked at how long lung cancer patients survived after diagnostic. They learned that those who also had diabetes were somehow protected, while their lives were extended in a statistically significant manner from their peers'.

This discovery hints at a cellular or genetic mechanism that may be highly activated or inactivated in diabetes, therefore stifling the development of lung cancer. If such a mechanism exists, then finding and analyzing it could lead to the development of innovative drugs against this prevalent cancer.

The study was published in the November issue of the journal. The magazine is the official publication of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). The main implication the new study has is that diabetes should not prevent doctors from applying standard cancer medication.

The team also added that more studies need to be conducted into the nature of the correlation they discovered. In the study, the team refrained from speculating about what this connection might be.

“Standard therapy should not be withheld from patients with diabetes mellitus provided they are otherwise fit, even if it may be considered a significant comorbidity. The survival benefit may be of clinical importance and should be focused on in future studies,” the researchers write.

The study was led by experts from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the Trondheim University. Together, they surveyed the 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival rates of lung cancer patients from the Nord-Trøndelag Health study (HUNT).

Participants in the pemetrexed gemcitabine (PEG) study and the Norwegian Lung Cancer Biobank study were also included in the work. About 43 percent of those who also had diabetes survived after a year, as opposed to 28 percent of those without the second condition.

Two years after the study began, 19 percent of those with both conditions survived, as opposed to only 11 percent of those diagnosed exclusively with cancer. Three years later, some 3 percent of those in the first group survived, as opposed to only 1 percent of those in the second group.

“Increased survival in patients with diabetes mellitus was clearly demonstrated in the PEG study where all patients had advanced lung cancer,” the team adds, quoted by Eurekalert.