Blood sugar marker tied to cancer in heart failure and type 2 diabetes
Compared with blood sugar marker levels of 5.0–6.9%, levels below 5.0% had an adjusted cancer hazard ratio of 1.28, a measure of relative risk.
Limit: Early undiagnosed cancer can lower HbA1c, so the order may be reversed
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational study using past health records included 62,845 adults with newly diagnosed heart failure and type 2 diabetes and no previous cancer diagnosis. Their average age was 68.2 years, and 58.4% were male. Researchers examined baseline hemoglobin A1c, a measure of average blood sugar.
Over a median follow-up of 4.8 years, 4,217 people developed cancer. Compared with marker levels of 5.0–6.9%, adjusted hazard ratios—a relative measure of cancer risk over time—were 1.28 below 5.0%, 1.19 at 7.0–8.9% and 1.37 at 9.0% or higher. The analysis accounted for age, sex, other health conditions and medications. This U-shaped association persisted across the specified age, sex and health-condition subgroups.
Why it matters
The study addresses how cancer risk might inform personalized blood sugar targets in an older population with both heart failure and diabetes.
Caveats
This observational study could not establish whether changing blood sugar targets would prevent cancer. The congress abstract covered people with both conditions and no previous cancer diagnosis, not people outside that population.
The paper
Hongkong University of Shenzhen Hospital; The University of Hong Kong
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
