chemo and diabetes

[ladyjaynie]

I have a qestion about chemo causing diabetes .
my glucose levels were checked before i got cancer and the were normal they now no that i have developed diabetes between being diagnosed and now.
i had hodkins lymphoma and had 6months abvd chemo.
I only ask as i have read somewhere that steroids or chemo can cause diabetes and i think i had steroids with my chemo to stop me being sick i think it was hydrocortisone.
have any of you heard of or got information about this .
i am just curios.
Jayne

 

[Northerner]

Hi Jayne, I don't personally have any experience of this, but according to Wikipaedia the steroids would have to have been of a certain type in order to lead to diabetes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid_diabetes , so it would depend on what actual steroids you were given for this to be the cause.

 

[margie]

There are a few articles that appear in google that indicate there may be a link. Your oncologist may be the best person to ask, I would have suggested the diabetes consultant but I suspect you are under the care of your GP.

 

[cherrypie]

I'll post these two links for you. If you read through them you will see that the steroid you were given is a glucocortcoid and could well have brought your diabetes on. I can understand your curiosity, I would be the same. When you next see your team ask them their thoughts and let us know.


http://www.livestrong.com/article/135530-medication-causes-diabetes/
http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/medical/glucocorticoid.htm

You have had quite a time of it and I hope you are feeling much better now.

Take care.

 

[ladyjaynie]

How very interesting i am defo gonna be doing some detective work and will ask my cancer team when i see them next and will let you no how i get on,thanks for the links i am thinking that there is a link between my diabetes and my lymphoma,also my liver function test are always abnormal. i can imagine that the specialists try to deny any link.
does it really matter? anyway i will keep you all informed .
Sherlock😉

 

[Copepod]

Does chemo cause diabetes? Does it matter whether it does or not? Simply, it matters if you want to know the answer.

There is a known causal link between steroid use and diabetes. It's more difficult to establish a causal link between each inidvidual chemotherapy agent, because there are so many and each one is taken by relatively fewer in the population that steroids. Plus, type 2 diabetes is very common, so some people would develop it even if they didn't have cancer and chemo at the same time. A specialist would most likely say that there is no known link, which doesn't mean that there isn't one, nor that they disregard your concern, but without a massive cohort study, they can't know for sure at this stage.