SEATTLE, Oct 18, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Canadian scientists say folk with diabetes mellitus have three to four times the risk of liver cancer than non-diabetic people.

The researchers, from the University of Montreal, also found people with diabetes mellitus have more than twice the risk of developing pancreatic cancer than non-diabetic individuals.

The work, presented Monday at the Third Annual Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Meeting in Seattle, is based on comparing 3,288 men diagnosed with 12 different cancer types to 509 healthy individuals to determine whether those reporting a prior diagnosis of diabetes were more likely to have cancer.

"Among those who reported being diabetic, there was a three-fold increased risk for liver cancer," said Marie-Claude Rousseau. "When we looked at the individuals who reported taking medication for their diabetes, the risk for liver cancer increased to almost four-fold, compared to individuals who were not diabetic."

Rousseau noted that these findings were independent of the body mass index of the individuals.

In this study, diabetics did not have increased risks for other cancer types, including melanoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, rectum, lung, prostate, bladder and kidney.

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