> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.foodconsumer.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Diabetes mellitus linked to higher risk of bladder cancer
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/diabetes_mellitus_bladder_cancer/
- Published: 2015-11-21T11:23:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:27:56.000Z
- Description: An Italian case-control study of 690 bladder cancer patients and 665 hospital controls found people with diabetes about twice as likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer, with longer diabetes duration linked to higher risk. Why the association exists is unknown; insulin and IGF-1 may play a part.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Disease, Health News, #vivvo-import

Saturday Nov 21, 2015 (foodconsumer.org) -- A case-control study recently published on nature.com confirmed that patients with diabetes mellitus are at higher risk for being diagnosed with bladder cancer. Early studies have already found diabetes mellitus not only associated with bladder cancer, but also other cancers like breast cancer.

The Italian study of 690 cases of bladder cancer and 665 frequency-matched hospital controls showed that diabetes mellitus patients were twice as likely as the controls to develop bladder cancer. Specifically, bladder cancer was found in 16.2% of diabetes mellitus patients and 8.6% of the controls.

Also, longer duration of diabetes mellitus was found associated with higher risk for developing bladder cancer.

This is not the only study showing the association between diabetes mellitus and bladder cancer. Here is an early review on the link between [diabetes mellitus and bladder cancer](http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alicja%5FWolk/publication/51380285%5FDiabetes%5Fmellitus%5Fand%5Frisk%5Fof%5Fbreast%5Fcancer%5Fa%5Fmeta-analysis/links/541dd8300cf2218008d1dab3.pdf?ref=foodconsumer.org).

[Diabetes mellitus can be a predictor for the mortality of cancer](http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/159/12/1160.short?ref=foodconsumer.org) and the disease has been also associated with breast cancer.

It is unknown why or how diabetes mellitus patients are more likely than others to develop bladder cancer and other cancers or have worse prognosis of cancers. The association may have something to do with insulin. [Insulin boosts the bioactivity of insulin-like growth factor](http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=800584&fileId=s002966510100012x&ref=foodconsumer.org) I (IGF-I) by increasing the production of IGF-1 and decreasing IGF-1 binding proteins. IGF-1 is known to promote cancer growth. Diabetes mellitus patients need higher levels of insulin in their systems to facilitate energy metabolism. Higher levels of insulin are linked to high bioactivity of IGF-1\. That is why diabetes mellitus patients are at a higher risk for cancer. (David Liu)

Reference

[F Turati, J Polesel, M Di Maso, M Montella, M Libra, M Grimaldi, A Tavani, D Serraino, C La Vecchia and C Bosetti, Diabetes mellitus and the risk of bladder cancer: an Italian case–control study, British Journal of Cancer 113, 127-130 (30 June 2015),](http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v113/n1/full/bjc2015178a.html?ref=foodconsumer.org)