Diabetes Drugs Linked To Greater Pancreatic Cancer Risk

Thu, 02 Feb 2012

Certain diabetes mellitus drugs may put people at higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer, according to a new Swiss study.

Previous research has suggested that people with pancreatic cancer may have an increased risk of diabetes, but it's unclear how diabetes - and the drugs used to treat it - may affect pancreatic cancer risks in previously cancer-free people.

To investigate this, researchers from the University Hospital Basel in Switzerland examined data from more than eight million people in the UK, including about 2,800 who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 1995 and 2009.

These individuals were compared with a group of people of similar age and gender who did not develop the cancer .

The scientists found that significantly more people with pancreatic cancer had a prior diagnosis of diabetes and a history of long-term use of insulin or sulfonylureas than those in the cancer-free comparison group.

However, they also discovered that significantly fewer women with a new diagnosis of pancreatic cancer had been taking the diabetes drug metformin for at least a few years, compared to cancer-free women, indicating that the commonly prescribed medication may be linked to a lower risk of the pancreatic disease – at least in women.

Lead researcher Christoph Meier said the results were surprising, as there was no clear explanation as to why the drug might help protect women against pancreatic cancer, but not men.

Dr. Peter Butler, a diabetes researcher at the University of California, said the metformin finding was in line with previous research suggesting that it may decrease the risk of multiple cancers.

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