People younger than 50 with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer similar in magnitude to having a family history of the disease, according to a large registry study.

German-led researchers used Swedish data on more than 12 million people, including individuals born after 1931 and their parents. Data was available for 559,375 people with diabetes and 162,226 people with colorectal cancer

A type 2 diabetes diagnosis before age 50 was associated with a 1.9-fold increased risk of colorectal cancer before age 50 and a 1.3-fold risk of colorectal cancer after age 50, the researchers reported in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Further, diabetic patients had a similar lifetime risk of colorectal cancer before age 50 (0.4%) as those with only a family history (0.5%) — double that of the general population (0.2%).