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# Diabetes drugs may increase risk of cancer - Study
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/diabetes_may_increase_risk_of_cancer_0510120622/
- Published: 2012-05-10T19:20:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:09:04.000Z
- Description: A Taiwanese study of 108,920 people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes found any insulin use linked to 97% higher cancer risk, glinides to 16% and first- and second-generation sulfonylureas to 8%. The third-generation drug glimepiride showed no association.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, #vivvo-import

By David Liu

Thursday May 10, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- There has been an association between diabetes type 2 and increased risk of cancer. But a new study released recently in the May 4, 2012 issue of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism suggests that it may be that using diabetes drugs instead of the disease itself increases the risk of cancer.

Chia-Hsuin Chang of National Taiwan University, Taipei 10055, Taiwan and colleagues conducted the study and found any use of insulin increased risk of cancer by 97 percent. The increase in cancer risk associated with glinides was 16 percent.

The study cohort included a total of 108,920 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus who made the Taiwan National Health Insurance claims from Jan 1, 2000 through Dec 31, 2000\. Of these patients, 8194 incident cancer cases were identified and they were compared with 32,776 diabetes patients without cancer to see if exposure to diabetes drugs may increase the cancer risk.

In addition to insulin and glinides, the first and second generation sulfonylureas were also found to increase the cancer risk by 8 percent. On the contrast, no association was found for the third generation drug, glimepiride.

The study also found that using insulin and glinides was correlated with higher risk for liver, colorectal, lung, stomach, and pancreatic cancer whereas sulfonylurea was mainly linked to an increased risk for liver cancer.

The researchers concluded "The results showed that sulfonylureas and glinides increased the risk for overall cancer, but to a lesser extent than insulin. Therapies that are associated with cancer risks certainly require further investigation."

Glinides also known as Meglitinides, a class of drugs indicated to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus, help diabetes patients by binding to an ATP-dependent K+ (KATP) channel on the cell membrane of pancreatic beta cells.

Diabetes can be largely preventable. The condition may be reversed by following a healthy lifestyle or healthy diet. Some alternative or dietary supplements may work better than drugs.