The Colon Club

Hello everyone,

My husband had a good-sized bleed in November 2022. He is just now getting around to going to doctors' offices. He has a colonoscopy on June 12. He just got back results from routine blood work which showed a glucose of 350 and an A1C of 12. An umbilical hernia was also found for which he needs to contact the surgeon. How does diabetes effect colon cancer?
Thank you.

Hello, I’m sorry I’m not aware of direct links between colon cancer and diabetes, however I understand diabetes and the use of drugs like metformin can make cancer imaging more difficult (CT, PET etc.) due to the contrast and methods used. However there are generally workarounds available for this.

Obviously it’s also important that the diabetes remains well-managed to ensure the patient is fit for other treatments (surgeries, etc.) without a higher risk of complications.

Good luck, Rob

It's my understanding that metformin is often prescribed off-label for cancer patients to help block glucose pathways. I'm not a doctor but it seems to me that if glucose levels are important enough to prescribe metformin off-label as part of cancer treatment, anyone with diabetes should be extra vigilant about keeping glucose under control. Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in here...

That's so interesting. I never knew that. I hope the doctor can convince him to take it.