GIM and Welch Center Researchers Publish in JAMA on Diabetes and Risk of Death in Cancer Patients

The December 17, 2008 issue of JAMA includes an article by several GIM and Welch Center investigators that has already caught the attention of major news sources. The principal author of the article, titled “Long-Term All-Cause Mortality in Cancer Patients with Preexisting Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” is Welch Center trainee Bethany Barone. Other authors who are members of GIM are Hsin-Chieh Yeh (better known to us as Jessica), PhD, Claire Snyder, PhD, Kimberly Peairs, MD, GIM Fellow Kelly Stein, MD, and Division Director Frederick Brancati, MD, MHS. Drs. Yeh and Brancati are also members of the Welch Center core faculty. Dr. Derr is in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism; both Dr. Snyder and Dr. Wolff belong to the Division of Oncology.

To perform their analysis, the team examined “articles evaluating the effect of diabetes on any prognostic outcome in cancer patients.” They found that that patients who had diabetes at the time they were diagnosed with cancer had a 41% greater risk of dying from the cancer than did those without diabetes. Several possible explanations for the interactions remain to be studied. The importance of the study has already gained it attention online in the Medpage Today, Bloomberg, and Reuters news services.