最近，美国学者公布的一项对5000名绝经后女性为期12年之研究结果表明，空腹血糖水平较高的中老年女性更易患大肠癌（包括结、直肠癌，colorectal cancer）。事实上，已往亦有类似的研究结果报告，即“高血糖似乎与大肠癌之发病存着着某些关联”。另外，亦有报告肥胖者易大肠癌。如何看待这些研究结果呢，我本人更倾向于“与其说是高血糖可能与大肠癌之发生存在着某些关联，不如说是某些导致肥胖的生活方式，如膳食不合理（如高脂、高糖、低纤维素膳食）、缺乏运动等分别导致了某些个性的肥胖，进而诱发了这些人的高血糖与大肠癌等。”因此，与其说是“高血糖可能与大肠癌有关”，不如说是“不健康的生活方式分别导致了肥胖、高血糖和/或大肠癌”。大家同意我的观点吗？

Women's High Blood Sugar Linked to Colorectal Cancer: Study

High blood sugar is a hallmark of diabetes

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) -- There may be a link between high blood sugar levels and an increased risk of colorectal cancer in older women, a new study finds.

Researchers analyzed 12 years of data collected from 5,000 postmenopausal women in the U.S. Women's Health Initiative study. The women's fasting blood sugar (glucose) and insulin levels were measured at the start of the study and then several more times over the next dozen years.

During the study period, 81 of the women were diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

The researchers found that women with elevated glucose levels at the start of the study were more likely to develop colorectal cancer, and that those in the highest third of glucose levels were nearly twice as likely to develop colorectal cancer than those in the lowest third.

There was no association between insulin levels and colorectal cancer risk, according to the team led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

The study appears online Nov. 29 in the British Journal of Cancer.

Obesity -- which is usually accompanied by elevated blood levels of glucose and insulin -- is a known risk factor for colorectal cancer. It's long been believed that the increased risk of colorectal cancer associated with obesity is due to high insulin levels, but this study suggests it may be due to high glucose levels.

"The next challenge is to find the mechanism by which chronically elevated blood glucose levels may lead to colorectal cancer," lead author Geoffrey Kabat, a senior epidemiologist at Einstein, said in a medical college news release. "It's possible that elevated glucose levels are linked to increased blood levels of growth factors and inflammatory factors that spur the growth of intestinal polyps, some of which later develop into cancer."

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.

SOURCE: Albert Einstein Medical College, news release, Nov. 29, 2011