Radiotherapy in indolent gastroduodenal lymphoma patients tied to diabetes: Study

Seoul, Korea: Patients with gastroduodenal indolent lymphoma who receive radiotherapy (RT) are at increased diabetes risk compared to those who do not, finds a recent study in the journal Cancer Research and Treatment.

Jong Yun Baek, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, and colleagues aimed to evaluate the effect of radiotherapy on the risk of diabetes by assessing hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels in gastroduodenal indolent lymphoma patients. 

For this purpose, the researchers performed a retrospective study that included patients with stage I extranodal marginal zone lymphoma of the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue or follicular lymphoma of the gastroduodenal region. They were treated with Helicobacter pylori eradication and/or RT between 2000 and 2019 in our institution. 

Of the total 79 patients with HbA1c test, 17 patients received RT (RT group), while 62 patients did not receive RT (Control group). A Diabetes-associated event (DAE) was defined as a ≥ 0.5% increase in HbA1c levels from baseline, and diabetes events (DE) were defined as an HbA1c level of ≥ 6.5%.