A recent study has found a link between type 2 diabetes and colon cancer among men, according to findings published in the journal Gastroenterology.

For this research, a team of investigators monitored the health trends among a total of 73,312 men and 81,663 women. Over the course of seven years, more than 1,500 men were diagnosed with colon cancer, while approximately 1,240 women had developed the disease.

Of these groups, 227 of the male cancer patients also had type 2 diabetes, but only 108 of the female participants suffered from both diseases.

The team discovered that men with diabetes were at an increased risk of colon cancer, regardless of the number of male patients who used insulin to treat the blood sugar disorder. However, there was no connection made between type 2 diabetes and cancer risk among women.

“While our study supports an association of type 2 diabetes with colorectal cancer incidence among men, our results also suggest that insulin use is associated with a slight, but not a substantially increased, risk of colorectal cancer among men with type 2 diabetes,” said Peter T. Campbell, lead author of the study.

Healthcare officials report that this year, an estimated 102,900 new cases of colon cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S., the American Cancer Institute reports.