Insulin Glargine and Cancer: Does Diabetes and its Therapy Influence Cancer Risk? (Medical Horizons)

On 26 may 2009, dr. hemkens and three other authors published a very disturbing paper in diabetology, in which they concluded that cancer incidence with the insulin anlague, glargine, was higher than expected compared with human insulin.their comprehensive study was conducted in 13 of 16 german federal states. data were provided by germany’s largest statutory health insurance fund for the total period between 1st january 1998 and 30th june 2005.the cohort study included 127,031 eligible adult patients, with a follow-up period ranging 1.41-4.41 years (mean: 1.63 yrs). all individuals in the study had no known malignant diseases for the 3 years prior to initial insulin therapy, with human insulin, insulin glargine and other types of insulin