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Sreeja, Mumbai
The crores of diabetes patients across the world who use the diabetes drug Lantus, beware! Before you go to the medical store to buy this drug next time, consult your doctor as the medical researchers in Europe have linked the use of this medicine to an increased risk of cancer.
Beware those who are on diabetes drug Lantus!
Lantus, which is marketed by multinational drug company Sanofi-Aventis, provides a daily injection of artificial insulin. For many diabetes patients who depend on insulin to regulate blood sugar, the once-a-day therapy has been hailed as a benefit over other drugs that require more frequent injections.
Studies in Europe are casting a pall over the treatment. An analysis of data from 127,000 insulin patients in Germany found an increased risk of colon cancer among those who used Lantus, particularly among patients who took a higher dose of the drug.
A second, smaller study in Sweden found a similar increased risk for breast cancer, but two other studies found no statistically significant link between the diabetes drug and cancer. The findings of the four studies are published in the journal Diabetologia.
But doctors caution that the findings are preliminary and may not hold up under greater scrutiny. A long-term study in the US is underway that may be able to confirm or disprove the cancer link. But it is not expected to be complete for several years.
Dr. John Buse, director of the Diabetes Care Center at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and past president of the American Diabetes Association, said insulin-dependent patients should not panic about the suggested link.
“Don't stop taking insulin,” Buse said. "If it makes you nervous, talk to your doctor about switching to a different kind of insulin." Buse said most patients have nothing to fear from Lantus. But he said type2 diabetes patients on high doses of Lantus who have had cancer, and those with a family history of cancer, might consider switching to another form of insulin.
The switch may not be easy for type1 diabetes patients. Buse said more research is needed before a definitive link can be made between Lantus and cancer. He said the European studies may have been biased to include patients who were screened more actively for cancers.
