Post-menopausal women with Type 2 diabetes are at greater risk of developing breast cancer, a newly published study says.

A team of researchers at the Lyon, France-based International Prevention Research Institute reviewed 40 separate studies, which covered around 56,000 breast cancer cases from a number of countries around the globe, to find possible links between breast cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

The researchers concluded that post-menopausal women who have Type 2 diabetes are at a 27 per cent higher risk of breast cancer.

Speaking about the findings, lead author Peter Boyle said, "Our study found a significantly increased risk of breast cancer in women who had diabetes, which was restricted to those of post-menopausal age."

However, the study didn’t detect any evidence supporting a link between pre-menopausal women with Type 1 diabetes and breast cancer.

The study published in the most recent issue of the British Journal of Cancer.

As per estimates by the World Cancer Research Fund, 89.1 of every 100,000 women in the UK develop breast cancer every year.