Professionals worldwide believe that obesity could be a risk factor for colon cancer. Enlightening on this remote link-up, scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have put forth that high blood sugar levels arising due to weight gain could be responsible for greater risk of colorectal cancer.
For the analysis, women who participated in the National Institutes of Health’s landmark Women’s Health Initiative study, were inspected. Their blood sugar levels were noted down at the start of the study and at regular intervals in the 12 year period.
Geoffrey Kabat, Ph.D., a senior epidemiologist at Einstein and lead author of the paper, remarked, “The next challenge is to find the mechanism by which chronically elevated blood glucose levels may lead to colorectal cancer. It’s possible that elevated glucose levels are linked to increased blood levels of growth factors and inflammatory factors that spur the growth of intestinal polyps, some of which later develop into cancer.”
As per the outcomes of the study, 81 of the women seemed to develop colorectal cancer, where an apparent link between high glucose levels and raised colorectal cancer risk came to light. However, there was no relation between insulin levels and cancer risk.
Many initial studies have revealed a link between colorectal cancer and obesity, but the causal factors have always been blurry. This trial essentially disclosed that obesity’s influence on this cancer may be due to elevated glucose levels.
The article named, ‘A Longitudinal Study of Serum Insulin and Glucose Levels in Relation to Colorectal Cancer Risk among Postmenopausal Women’ is published in the November 29 issue of the British Journal of Cancer.