"Negative Association between Diabetes Mellitus and the Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy"

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the risk factors for poor prognosis and outcomes in cancer patients. This study aimed to explore the efficacy of tumor immunotherapy for cancer patients with comorbid diabetes. A systematic electronic search on keywords including immunotherapy and tumor patients with diabetes was performed through electronic databases including PubMed, Embase and Web of Science. The primary outcome was the overall survival (OS). The secondary outcomes were the progression-free survival (PFS). Four retrospective cohort studies were included for analysis: A total of 3065 cancer patients were enrolled, including 1509 patients with comorbid diabetes. Compared to patients without diabetes, cancer patients with comorbid diabetes had a significantly lower overall survival (HR = 1.54, 95% CI: 1.27 to 1.87, P < 0.0001) and a similarly significantly shorter PFS (HR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.24 to 1.78, P < 0.0001) after treatment with immunotherapy. This study suggested that DM might confer a shorter OS and PFS for advanced cancer patients with immunotherapy. Further prospective research is needed to confirm these findings.