(dailyRx)

Type 2 diabetes and obesity are linked to an increased risk of certain cancers.
Recently published studies suggested insulin glargine, a synthetic insulin preparation marketed as Lantus, may be associated with a higher risk of certain cancers than other insulins or oral glucose-lowering medications. However, these studies were unable to control for important factors such as obesity that may have driven the association.

On the other hand, a large, randomized trial designed to examine another aspect of diabetes care that used insulin glargine in one arm showed no increase in the frequency of cancer with glargine.

To help resolve this important issue, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are coordinating a large, multi-site, retrospective study on insulin users with type 2 diabetes. The study is designed to determine if diabetes patients exposed to insulin glargine have a higher incidence of cancer than diabetes patients exposed to other insulins or to other glucose-lowering medications. Data will be collected from administrative and electronic medical record databases.

The principal investigator of the study, John B. Buse, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism in the Department of Medicine at UNC, said, "This study is the largest effort to date that examines the hypothetical insulin-cancer relationship. Both its size and the quality of the data will clearly enable us to provide a much better estimate of the safety of glargine in particular and insulin in general with regards to cancer risk."

The study plans to analyze data from about 400,000 people with diabetes, determine their use of diabetes treatments, including insulin, and document the incidence of cancer. "We have recruited a truly exceptional group of scientists and resources from across the country to provide as definitive a resolution to the issue as possible over the next year and a half." said Buse.

The study is being funded by a research grant from drugmaker sanofi-aventis.

Contact:
Les Lang
919-966-9366
llang@med.unc.edu