Digestive Diseases Week 2006 (DDW) reported women with type 2 diabetes show higher rates of colorectal adenomas than lean, nondiabetic women. The investigators gathered and evaluated data on 100 women with type 2 diabetes and 500 lean, nondiabetic woman from an outpatient university endoscopy center. The researchers reported that diabetics compared with nondiabetics showed increased rates of any adenoma (37% vs 24%) and advanced adenomas (14% vs 6%).
"We found that type 2 diabetics had up to a 2- to 3-fold increased risk of having any adenoma or advanced adenomas, which are precancerous polyps," said presenter and lead investigator Jill Elwing, MD, gastroenterology fellow, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri. "The most clinically significant impact of this finding is that diabetics should undergo colon-cancer screening because of their increased risk for colon polyps."
