Serum Glucose and Fructosamine in Relation to Risk of Cancer

Abstract

BackgroundImpaired glucose metabolism has been linked with increased cancer risk, but the association between serum glucose and cancer risk remains unclear. We used repeated measurements of glucose and fructosamine to get more insight into the association between the glucose metabolism and risk of cancer.MethodsWe selected 11,998 persons (>20 years old) with four prospectively collected serum glucose and fructosamine measurements from the Apolipoprotein Mortality Risk (AMORIS) study. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess standardized log of overall mean glucose and fructosamine in relation to cancer risk. Similar analyses were performed for tertiles of glucose and fructosamine and for different types of cancer.ResultsA positive trend was observed between standardized log overall mean glucose and overall cancer risk (HR = 1.08; 95% CI: 1.02–1.14). Including standardized log fructosamine in the model resulted in a stronger association between glucose and cancer risk and aninverse association between fructosamine and cancer risk (HR = 1.17; 95% CI: 1.08–1.26 and HR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.82–0.96, respectively). Cancer risks were highest among those in the highest tertile of glucose and lowest tertile of fructosamine. Similar findings were observed for prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer while none observed for breast cancer.ConclusionThe contrasting effect between glucose, fructosamine, and cancer risk suggests the existence of distinct groups among those with impaired glucose metabolism, resulting in different cancer risks based on individual metabolic profiles. Further studies are needed to clarify whether glucose is a proxy of other lifestyle-related or metabolic factors.

Hyperglycemia, Classified with Multiple Biomarkers Simultaneously in Men without Diabetes, and Risk of Fatal Prostate Cancer

“…Further, in the meta-analyses of fasting glucose (16), the association between hyperglycemia and total prostate cancer incidence was attenuated and no longer statistically significant when restricted to studies that adjusted for BMI, like our study. In a prior study that incorporated repeated measures of glucose and fructosamine, fructosamine, but not glucose, was inversely associated with prostate cancer incidence; further, there was no significant association when men in the highest tertile of both biomarkers were compared with men in the lowest tertile of both biomarkers (32). Our findings for individual glycemia biomarkers and joint categories of these biomarkers are consistent with prior literature suggesting either no association, or a possibly modest inverse association between hyperglycemia and total prostate cancer incidence.…”

Hyperglycaemia is associated with cancer-related but not non-cancer-related deaths: evidence from the IPC cohort

“…Thus, the relationship between diabetes and cancer is yet to be definitively ascertained. Two recent studies have suggested a direct involvement of hyperglycaemia in the glucose metabolism-cancer relationship [5,6].…”

Circulating gamma-glutamyl transferase and development of specific breast cancer subtypes: findings from the Apolipoprotein Mortality Risk (AMORIS) cohort

“…Obesity [11, 21–23] and dietary fat intake [30–32] may also affect subtype development via hormonal modulation, increased oxidative stress and inflammation [22]. Similar roles have been indicated for circulating glucose [17, 33, 34]. Therefore, increased GGT associated with increased risk of breast cancer may partly be acting as a marker of these metabolic disorders.…”