People with type 2 diabetes have long been known to face a higher risk of cancer, but new data suggest the gap has grown wider over the past quarter century.
The finding comes from a nationwide Danish analysis to be presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting in Milan, which runs from September 28 to October 2, 2026.
Between 2010 and 2022, overall cancer incidence was 22 percent higher in women with type 2 diabetes and 12 percent higher in men, compared with people without diabetes.
In the earlier stretch, from 1996 to 2009, the gaps were smaller. Women faced a 15 percent higher risk, and men 9 percent.
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The researchers, led by Dr. Tinne Laurberg of Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus at Aarhus University Hospital, tracked cancer diagnoses in the entire adult population of Denmark from 1996 through 2022.
Over that period, 75,540 first cancers were recorded in people with type 2 diabetes and 635,323 in adults without diabetes.
Obesity-linked cancers drive the gap
The widening gap is mostly explained by cancers with a known link to excess body weight.
Between 2010 and 2022, obesity-related cancer incidence was 45 percent higher in men with type 2 diabetes and 30 percent higher in women.
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The National Cancer Institute lists 13 cancers linked to obesity, including postmenopausal breast, colorectal, kidney, pancreatic, liver and endometrial cancer.
Fat tissue is not passive. It produces extra estrogen and pushes up levels of insulin.
It also raises insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), a hormone-like molecule that can drive cells to divide more often. Chronic inflammation adds to the pressure.
The pattern showed up in specific cancer types.
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Colorectal cancer incidence was 17 percent higher in men with type 2 diabetes and 14 percent higher in women.
Lung cancer was 23 percent higher in men and 25 percent higher in women.
Postmenopausal breast cancer was 8 percent higher in women with type 2 diabetes.
Prostate cancer went the other way, at 19 percent lower in men with the condition.
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Screening for cancer
The study is observational. The team set out to describe differences in cancer incidence between people with and without type 2 diabetes, not to prove that diabetes itself causes them.
Lifestyle factors such as body weight, smoking, alcohol and physical activity were not measured.
Even so, Dr. Laurberg singled out cancers with established screening programs, such as colorectal and postmenopausal breast cancer.
People with type 2 diabetes should be actively encouraged to take part, she said.
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About 40.1 million Americans are living with diabetes, according to a CDC report card updated in February 2026, and roughly 9 in 10 of those cases are type 2.
Colorectal cancer screening in the United States now starts at age 45 for people at average risk, per updated American Cancer Society guidance.
Options include a stool-based home test, colonoscopy, or a newer blood-based test.
This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.