The journal of maternal-fetal & neonatal medicine : the official journal of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies, the International Society of Perinatal ObstetriciansOct 26, 2017

Gestational diabetes and the risk of breast cancer in mothers: a combined analysis of studies

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Apr 2, 2026

Abstract

Overall, there was no significant association between gestational diabetes mellitus and breast cancer risk (pooled OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.65, 1.10).

Five case-control studies and six cohort studies were included in the analysis.
No significant associations were found between gestational diabetes and breast cancer in cohort studies (pooled RR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.80, 1.25).
Subgroup analysis indicated that gestational diabetes may act as a protective factor against breast cancer when breast cancer is verified through cancer registry systems (OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.54, 1.00).
The findings suggest that mothers with gestational diabetes do not need to be overly concerned about their future breast cancer risk.

Simplified

OBJECTIVE: The association between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and maternal breast cancer risk was controversial and inclusive. In this study, we aimed to examine the association between GDM and maternal breast cancer using meta-analysis method.

METHODS: Researchers searched and reviewed the topic related articles comprehensively. For each eligible article, we extracted the effect size (odds ratio/relative risk or OR/RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI). We used random effect models to combine the effect sizes. Subgroups analysis were used to examine whether the effects of GDM on breast cancer risk differed across GDM ascertainment methods, breast cancer ascertainment method, risk of bias, and country of study origin.

RESULTS: Five case-control studies and six cohort studies which met the eligible criteria were included into analysis. Overall, we didn't find significant associations between GDM and breast cancer among case-control studies (pooled OR = 0.85, 95%CI = 0.65, 1.10) and cohort studies pooled RR = 1.00, 95%CI = 0.80, 1.25). However, our subgroup analysis showed that GDM was a protective factor for breast cancer among the case-control studies in which breast cancer was ascertained via cancer registry system (OR = 0.73, 95%CI = 0.54, 1.00).

CONCLUSIONS: GDM during pregnancy is not associated with breast cancer in our study, suggesting that GDM mothers are not needed to be too anxious about their future breast cancer risk.

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Gestational diabetes and the risk of breast cancer in mothers: a combined analysis of studies

Abstract

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