Does diabetes mellitus have an impact on the prognosis for patients with cervical cancer?

Objective: To evaluate the impact of comorbid diabetes mellitus (DM) on prognoses among patients with cervical cancer.

Methods: We analyzed cervical cancer outcomes in patients who treated in two hospitals retrospectively. Patients were divided into those with DM and those without. Clinicopathologic parameters, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) rates were evaluated.

Results: Of the 494 patients, 50 had DM. These were more likely to be older than those in the non-DM group and their body mass index (BMI) was higher. They showed higher levels of tumor markers and had more combined diseases. They were less likely to have had surgical treatment. Among these patients, 12 (24%) experienced a recurrence (hazard ratio, HR, 1.484; 95% confidence interval, CI, 0.746-2.951). Differences in DFS did not show statistical significance. In the OS analysis, 11 (22%) in the DM group and 62 (14%) in the non-DM group died (HR, 1.239; 95% CI, 0.606-2.533). No statistically significant differences were also observed for cancer-specific death (HR, 1.246; 95% CI, 0.567-2.737). Those with DM and an adenocarcinoma tended to have an increased risk of dying compared with the non-DM patients with an adenocarcinoma (HR, 3.673; 95% CI, 0.990-13.625), but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.0518).

Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus did not have an impact on the prognosis for patients with cervical cancers. In those with an adenocarcinoma, patients with diabetes tended to have an increased risk of dying compared with the non-DM group, but this difference was not statistically significant.