Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus and Oral Tumors in Hungary: A Long-term Comparative Epidemiological Study

BACKGROUND: Hungary has a leading place in global statistics of oral cancer and there is a high incidence of type-2 diabetes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective diabetes and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) screening of 758 inpatients with histologically-confirmed oral malignancies was performed. The control group comprised of 534 tumor-free adults. The results were compared to data collected 14 years earlier. RESULTS: Diabetes mellitus (DM) was found in 25.9% and IFG in 20.6% of patients with oral cancer. Fourteen years earlier, DM was diagnosed in 14.6% and IFG in 9.7% of cancer patients. Among diabetic patients, the labial tumor location showed long-term dominance. The smoking rate of diabetes patients with oral cancer was higher in the present than in the previous study. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes and IFG increased significantly among oral cancer patients in the last 14 years.