Objective: To determine the effect of chemotherapy on glucose metabolism in patients with malignant ovarian tumor.
Methods: The blood glucose assay and associated clinical materials of 375 cases with malignant ovarian tumor who received chemotherapy from January 1997 to December 2001 were analyzed retrospectively.
Results: Thirty-two cases (8.5%) had elevated fasting blood glucose after chemotherapy. Among them, 14 cases (3.7%) were diagnosed as diabetes mellitus, 9 cases (2.4%) were diagnosed as impaired glucose tolerance. Paclitaxel based chemotherapy seemed to have more opportunity to induce disorders of glucose metabolism than that in cisplatin based chemotherapy (P < 0.05), and this happened most frequently in 1 approximately 3 courses.
Conclusion: Chemotherapy may induce disorders of glucose metabolism, which most frequently occurred in 1 approximately 3 courses, including impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes mellitus,especially in patients received paclitaxel chemotherapy.