Seoul, Korea: Patients with gastroduodenal indolent lymphoma who receive radiotherapy (RT) are at increased diabetes risk compared to those who do not, finds a recent study in the journal Cancer Research and Treatment.
Jong Yun Baek, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, and colleagues aimed to evaluate the effect of radiotherapy on the risk of diabetes by assessing hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels in gastroduodenal indolent lymphoma patients.
For this purpose, the researchers performed a retrospective study that included patients with stage I extranodal marginal zone lymphoma of the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue or follicular lymphoma of the gastroduodenal region. They were treated with Helicobacter pylori eradication and/or RT between 2000 and 2019 in our institution.
Of the total 79 patients with HbA1c test, 17 patients received RT (RT group), while 62 patients did not receive RT (Control group). A Diabetes-associated event (DAE) was defined as a ≥ 0.5% increase in HbA1c levels from baseline, and diabetes events (DE) were defined as an HbA1c level of ≥ 6.5%.
Key findings of the study include:
During the median follow-up of 49 months, no local failure occurred after RT and no patients died of lymphoma.
The RT group had a significantly higher risk for DAEs on univariable analysis (hazard ratio [HR]=4.18) and multivariable analysis (HR=3.68).
The DE risk was significantly higher in the RT group than in the control group (HR=4.32) and in patients with increased baseline HbA1c levels (HR=35.83).
On multivariable analysis, RT significantly increased the risk of DEs (HR=4.55), even after adjusting baseline HbA1c level (HR=40.97).
"Patients who received RT for gastroduodenal indolent lymphoma had an increased risk of diabetes compared to those who did not," wrote the authors.
Reference:
The study titled, "Increased Risk of Diabetes after Definitive Radiotherapy in Patients with Indolent Gastroduodenal Lymphoma," is published in the journal Cancer Research and Treatment.
DOI: https://www.e-crt.org/journal/view.php?doi=10.4143/crt.2021.073