title: Association between gestational diabetes mellitus and subsequent risk of cancer: a systematic review of epidemiological studies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed at summarizing epidemiological evidence of the association between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and subsequent risk of cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched Medline, Embase, Cancer Lit and CINAHL for epidemiological studies published by February 1, 2014 examining the risk of cancer in patients with history of GDM using highly inclusive algorithms. Information about first author, year of publication, country of study, study design, cancer sites, sample sizes, attained age of subjects and methods used for determining GDM status were extracted by two researchers and Stata version 11.0 was used to perform the meta-analysis and estimate the pooled effects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 9 articles documented 5 cohort and 4 case- control studies containing 10,630 cancer cases and 14,608 women with a history of GDM were included in this review. Taken together, the pooled odds ratio (OR) between GDM and breast cancer risk was 1.01 (0.87-1.17); yet the same pooled ORs of case-control and cohort studies were 0.87 (0.71-1.06) and 1.25 (1.00-1.56) respectively. There are indications that GDM is strongly associated with higher risk of pancreatic cancer (HR=8.68) and hematologic malignancies (HR=4.53), but no relationships were detected between GDM and other types of cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although GDM increases the risk of certain types of cancer, these results should be interpreted with caution becuase of some methodological flaws. The issue merits added investigation and coordinated efforts between researchers, antenatal clinics and cancer treatment and registration agencies to help attain better understanding.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Management, School of Health Services Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China E-mail : dbwang@vip.sina.com.
authors.forename: Gui-Xian
authors.initials: GX
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.forename: Qing-Qing
authors.initials: QQ
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.forename: Peng-Lai
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xin-Rong
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: De-Bin
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D012306:Risk