Women with prediabetes are at increased risk for kidney cancer, study reveals

The study led to the following findings:

• During the 78.1 million person-years of follow-up, incident kidney cancer occurred in 8,834 men and 3,547 women.
• The male-to-female ratio of the incidence rate was 2.1:1 in never-smokers with normoglycemia (17.8 vs 8.5/100,000 person-years).
• Among never-smokers, men with diabetes, but not prediabetes, had an increased risk of kidney cancer (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.25), respectively.
• Among never-smokers, women with both diabetes and prediabetes had an increased risk (aHR 1.34, respectively).
• Among smokers, men and women with diabetes had 49%, and 85% increased kidney cancer risk (aHR 1.49 and 1.85), respectively.

"In women, glycemic cancer and kidney cancer risk exhibited a dose-response association, but in men diabetes, but not prediabetes, was linked with an increased risk in men," the researchers stated.

"Although women have a reduced kidney cancer risk than men, women with even prediabetes are at increased risk. These results should not be unnoticed when monitoring for kidney complications."

Reference:

Joo-Hyun Park, Jung Yong Hong, Kyungdo Han, Jay J. Shen; Association Between Glycemic Status and the Risk of Kidney Cancer in Men and Women: A Nationwide Cohort Study. Diabetes Care 2022; dc220961. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc22-0961