A weight loss intervention in people with type 2 diabetes was found to alter levels of cancer-related proteins, according to the findings of a new University of Bristol-led study.
The study, published in eBioMedicine, is one of the first to show that weight loss in people recently diagnosed with diabetes can change the levels of cancer-related chemicals circulating in the blood.
Previous studies have found that having increased body weight alters the levels of circulating proteins with a known link to cancer. Motivated by these findings, researchers from Bristol Medical School collaborated with colleagues from the universities of Glasgow and Newcastle who led the DiRECT trial. They sought to evaluate whether the benefits of weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes also impacts their risk of developing cancer.
To investigate this, the team used data from 261 patients with type 2 diabetes who were enrolled in the DiRECT trial. The team analyzed their blood samples from before and after weight loss to find out if proteins known to be related to cancer were altered by the weight loss intervention.
Nine cancer-related proteins in blood samples were found to be changed by the weight loss intervention compared with the control group who had received standard care for diabetes treatment.
