Cancer researchers are exploring possible links between diabetes and breast cancer. In an article just published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, researchers describe how they identified such a link: diabetic women are more likely than non-diabetics to have had breast cancer. That is, at least according to the results of their study, which found that of 82,000 diabetic women and 400,000 non-diabetic women, the diabetics were thirteen percent more likely to have had breast cancer.

The mystery is why this might be. Possible factors that need to be examined include diet and lifestyle, body weight, and reproductive factors. The role of hormones is also considered important. In particular, it has been thought that estrogen levels may play a role. With the identification of diabetes as a factor, however, attention is now shifting to the possible role that insulin plays in all this.