Diabetes and Breast Cancer
Diabetes and breast cancer are common diseases, and both are significant burdens for women around the world. Existing evidence supports the strong association between diabetes and the development of breast cancer. The impact of diabetes on breast cancer goes beyond the associations between the two. Current evidence suggests co-diagnosis of diabetes and breast cancer is associated with differences in diagnosis, treatments received, treatment response, patient’s quality of life, cancer recurrence, and mortality. Although there is existing evidence supporting the impact of diabetes on breast cancer outcomes and approaches to manage the two, there is little guidance on specific differences in approaching diabetes management in a patient with breast cancer. With the increasing body of evidence highlighting the impact of diabetes in the management of patients with breast cancer, a shift in the approach to managing patients with diabetes and breast cancer has gained significant attention, and new approaches to address this challenge continue to emerge. In this chapter, we summarize the existing evidence supporting the impact of diabetes on breast cancer outcomes and describe approaches to manage diabetes in a patient with breast cancer.
