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Common diabetes drugs may lower cancer risk for women
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Patients with type 2 diabetes have a greater likelihood of developing cancer and cancer recurrence compared with the general population, but certain diabetes medications can lower a woman’s risk, according to Sangeeta R. Kashyap, MD.
“Cancer is a very big health risk for patients with diabetes,” Kashyap told Endocrine Today. “Patients need to be aware that diabetes drugs can be used in certain ways to have favorable results on lowering cancer risk. Physicians also need to be actively involved with managing cancer risk in patients with diabetes because drugs that we use to lower glucose levels can either have favorable or unfavorable consequences.”
Sangeeta R. Kashyap
Kashyap, an endocrinologist and associate professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic’s Endocrinology and Metabolism Institute, and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of the electronic health record-based Cleveland Clinic Diabetes Registry (n=25,613), cross-referenced with the histology-based tumor registry (n=48,051) during an 8-year period to investigate the potential association between cancer incidence and commonly prescribed diabetes therapies (ie, biguanides, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones and meglitinides).
“What we found was that there were over 800 incident cancer cases in this group, confirmed by tissue diagnosis. We also found that the most common cancer was prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women; that diabetes drugs in men did not influence cancer risk for development. However, in women, the use of TZDs in contrast to sulfonylureas were associated with 30% less cancer risk,” Kashyap said.
They identified 892 incident cases of cancer; prostate (14.5%) and breast (11.7%) malignancies were most common. In women, TZDs were associated with a 32% decreased cancer risk compared with sulfonylurea use (HR=0.68; 95% CI, 0.48-0.97), according to data.
When used in women, insulin secretagogues (sulfonylureas and meglitinides) compared with insulin sensitizers (biguanides and TZDs) demonstrated a 21% reduction of cancer risk with insulin sensitizers (HR=0.79; 95% CI, 0.64-0.98), according to data.
Furthermore, they found no significant difference in bladder cancer risk between TZD users vs. non-TZD users (HR=0.86; 95% CI, 0.25-2.95), researchers wrote.
“In general, what we found is that drugs that lower insulin levels have better effects on lowering cancer risk. Lowering insulin levels can lower or cut cancer risks in women in particular,” Kashyap said. – by Samantha Costa
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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