High blood sugar 'may raise risk of cancer'

* People with high blood sugar levels may face an increased risk of cancer, Swedish scientists have claimed.
Researchers at Umea University recorded the blood sugar levels of more than 500,000 people and followed them to see whether they developed cancer in the future.

* After 10.4 years, 18,621 men and 11,664 women had been diagnosed with cancer and the researchers found that, particularly in women, high blood sugar levels appeared to be associated with an increased risk of developing and dying from cancer.

* Among women, blood sugar levels appear to be particularly associated with pancreatic cancer, while the same was observed for liver cancer in men.

* Lead researcher Dr Tanja Stocks commented: 'These results suggest that for women, the higher the level of sugar in the blood, the higher the risk.
'For men, there was still an association but it was weaker.'

* The scientist noted that the results confirm previous observations made by scientists in South Korea.

The study, which was funded by the World Cancer Research Fund, is published in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal.