Prevalence of Diabetes and Impaired Fasting Glycemia in Patients With Oral Cancer: A Retrospective Study in Hungary

Background/aim: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common chronic metabolic disorders. Our research aimed to demonstrate the relationship between DM and oral cancer.

Patients and methods: We pursued a retrospective research study in Hungary between January 2019 and December 2020. We investigated 597 inpatient records and compared them to the results of our previous studies (1998-2002 and 2012-2015).

Results: The frequency of patients with DM in the oral cancer group is 2.45 times higher today than 20 years ago. The prevalence rate of DM and oral malignancies increased from 14.6% to 35.8%. In the oral cancer group, 54.4% of the patients had elevated blood glucose levels and of these, 61.1% of them had type 2 diabetes, 34.2% had impaired fasting glycemia, and only 4.7% had type 1 diabetes. We observed that 45.3% of them were smokers. Of those whose blood sugar levels were under 6.1 mmol/l, the mean body mass index was 25.33 [standard deviation (SD)=±4.5; range=15.57-39.84], while among patients with DM, it was 26.92 (SD=±5.8; range=18.36-44.08).

Conclusion: It may be necessary to continuously monitor the patient's blood sugar level to maintain euglycemic levels when managing patients with malignant oral lesions.