Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus as a Risk Factor for Female Breast Cancer in the Population of Northern Pakistan

Background: There has been much research work in the past to ascertain the association between type 2 diabetes mellitus and breast cancer, but definitive evidence has been scanty. The present study was carried out to determine the association of type 2 diabetes mellitus with breast cancer in the female population of Northern Pakistan. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was carried out in the Oncology Department of NORI Hospital. A total of 400 patients were included. Data were entered into PSPP 0.8.1. Two-tailed significance tests were used and a p-value of 0.05 was considered significant. Results: There were a higher percentage of postmenopausal women in the diabetic breast cancer patients' group as compared to the non-diabetic subset. The odds ratio for the association between diabetes and risk of developing breast cancer was elevated with statistical significance (OR = 2.96; 95 % CI =1.3-6.3; p-value=0.004). The results of our study showed that diabetes is associated with a risk of developing breast cancer, especially in postmenopausal women (OR = 4.928; 95 % CI = 2.1-11.3; p-value=0.001). The association was particularly marked in obese subjects (OR = 31.49; 95 % CI = 1.8-536; p- value=0.01), as compared to non-obese subjects (OR = 0.642; 95 % CI = 0.2-1.7). Conclusions: Diabetes is strongly associated with obesity and it tends to increase the risk of breast Cancer, especially in postmenopausal women. A high-risk subset for breast cancer comprised postmenopausal, diabetic and overweight women.