Are diabetics and the obese prone to cancer?
October 2005
ROBERT FINGEROTE, MD, of Ottawa, ON, notes, "There's been some worrisome data indicating that both obesity and diabetes are associated with increased rates of certain malignancies. Should we be screening these patients more aggressively for cancer?"
The answer to the question is that not enough evidence exists at this time to single out obese or diabetic populations. We should be screening everybody more aggressively, for in certain diseases, such as breast, colon and cervical cancers, it could make a difference. We're nowhere near getting the numbers of Pap smears or mammograms, for example, that would lead to detecting these disorders earlier and decreasing mortality. BC
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