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# Insulin therapy linked to premature death, cardiac events, cancer
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/insulin_therapy_1121141121/
- Published: 2014-11-21T10:20:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:21:58.000Z
- Description: A UK study of 6,484 type 2 diabetes patients found each one-unit increase in insulin dose was associated with 54%, 37% and 35% higher risk of death, major cardiovascular events and cancer over 3.3 years. The study was observational and cannot show insulin caused the added risk.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, #vivvo-import

Friday Nov 21, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients who receive exogenous insulin monotherapy are at risk of increased risk of all-cause mortality, incident major adverse cardiovascular events, and incident cancer, according to a study recently published in the journal, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.

The study based on data from 6484 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who "progressed to treatment with insulin monotherapy from 2000" found that during a 3.3-year follow-up, an additional one-unit increase in the dose of insulin were associated with 54%, 37 and 35% increased risk of all-cause mortality, major cardiovascular events and cancer, respectively. The patients in the study were registered to the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink.

The study concluded "There was an association between increasing exogenous insulin dose and increased risk of all-cause mortality, cancer and MACE in people with type 2 diabetes."

It should be noted that this study is observational and could not prove that the increased risk of all-cause mortality, cancer and MACE in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were due to use of exogenous insulin monotherapy even though the causal relationship could not be excluded either. (David Liu, PHD)

Reference

Sarah E. Holden MPharm, Sara Jenkins-Jones MSc, Christopher L. Morgan MSc, Guntram Schernthaner MD and Craig J. Currie PhD, Glucose-lowering with exogenous insulin monotherapy in type 2 diabetes: dose association with all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events, and incident cancer, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.