Hamood R, et al. - Breast cancer survivors were examined to determine the link between hormone therapy and diabetes risk. Active hormone therapy was identified as a significant risk factor for diabetes among these patients. The risk may be minimized via preventive strategies focused on lifestyle modifications. As the survival benefits of hormone therapy outweighed the risks, treatment cessation is not advised.

Methods

• This case-cohort study included 2,246 female survivors recruited from the Leumit health care fund who were diagnosed with primary nonmetastatic invasive breast cancer in 2002 through 2012.
• At baseline, a 20% random subcohort was sampled, and all diabetes cases were identified.
• Weighted Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs.

Results

• A mean follow-up of 5.9 years revealed development of diabetes in 324 of a total of 2,246 breast cancer survivors included.
• Researchers found that the crude cumulative incidence of diabetes that accounted for death as a competing risk was 20.9% (95% CI, 18.3% to 23.7%).
• Hormone therapy was found to be related to increased diabetes risk via multivariable-adjusted models (HR, 2.40; 95% CI, 1.26 to 4.55; P=.008).
• Less pronounced hazard with tamoxifen use (HR, 2.25; 95% CI, 1.19 to 4.26; P=.013) was seen, relative to the use of aromatase inhibitors (HR, 4.27, 95% CI, 1.42 to 12.84; P=.010).