Bariatric surgery cuts cancer risk
New SOS study analysis links bariatric surgery to a 37% reduction in incident cancer among people with obesity and diabetes — and patients who achieved diabetes remission after surgery saw a 60% reduction in cancer risk HCPLive. That’s a striking long‑term non‑glycemic benefit to weigh in metabolic care planning.
The long‑term analysis was published in Diabetes Care (2022;45[2]:444–450, DOI 10.2337/dc21-1335) and lists Magdalena Taube and colleagues as authors. (diabetesjournals.org) The analytic sample included 701 participants with obesity and type 2 diabetes at baseline — 393 who underwent bariatric surgery and 308 matched controls — with cancer events obtained from the Swedish National Cancer Register. (diabetesjournals.org) Median follow‑up for the cohort was 21.3 years (IQR 17.6–24.8 years) with a maximum follow‑up of 30.7 years. (diabetesjournals.org) First‑time cancer incidence in the study was reported at 9.1 versus 14.1 events per 1,000 person‑years in the surgery and control groups, respectively, producing an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.63 (95% CI 0.44–0.89; P = 0.008). (diabetesjournals.org) The reduction in cancer incidence was statistically significant in women (adjusted HR 0.58; P = 0.016), although the interaction test for sex and treatment was not significant. (diabetesjournals.org) Diabetes remission at the 10‑year follow‑up was associated with a lower cancer incidence (adjusted HR 0.40; P = 0.003), and international consensus commonly defines remission as sustained normal glycemia off glucose‑lowering medications for a clinically meaningful period. (diabetesjournals.org) The findings derive from the Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) cohort — a prospective, nonrandomized trial that recruited between 1987 and 2001 and originally enrolled 2,010 surgical patients and 2,037 matched controls with procedures that included vertical banded gastroplasty, gastric banding, and gastric bypass. (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
