Changes in blood glucose of elderly patients with gastric cancer combined with type 2 diabetes mellitus after radical operation and the effect of mediation adjustment for blood glucose on the recovery of gastric cancer

This study aimed to investigate the changes in blood glucose of elderly patients with gastric cancer combined with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) after radical operation. Forty-six patients in DM group and 30 patients in non-DM group underwent radical surgery between January, 2007 and January, 2017 in The First Hospital of Lanzhou University, and the clinical data were retrospectively analyzed. Statistical analysis was conducted to explore the effect of radical operation on blood glucose control of the two groups of patients. In 46 patients with gastric cancer combined with T2DM, 24 patients received postoperative insulin intervention, and the remaining 22 patients did not receive insulin intervention. This latter set of patients comprised the non-insulin treatment group. Blood glucose control conditions, inflammatory markers, tumor markers and their effects on the prognosis were compared between the two groups. Level of postoperative blood glucose of the DM group was significantly higher than that of the non-DM group (P<0.05), while the level of blood glucose in the insulin treatment group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). Levels of related tumor markers and inflammatory factors of insulin treatment group were significantly higher than those of the control group (P<0.05). The 5-year survival rate of insulin treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). Our results showed that the level of blood glucose was significantly increased in elderly patients with gastric cancer combined with T2DM after radical operation, and levels of blood glucose, tumor markers and inflammatory factors in elderly gastric cancer patients with T2DM without insulin were significantly increased after radical operation, and long-term prognosis is poor.