Insulin therapy for diabetics may increase the risk of certain types of cancer, suggests a new study.
According to Food Consumer, Dr. Zhiqiang Lu and researchers at the University of Maryland in Baltimore looked at medical records of 230,330 patients from the UK who had claimed to have undergone insulin therapy. They found that those who used insulin alone had an 88 percent increased risk for pancreatic cancer while participants who used insulin therapy in combination with other drugs increased their risk by 133 percent. Lu also found that the risk for colorectal cancer was also increased with the use of insulin.
“These data suggest that there may be more than one mechanism by which insulin therapy impacts the risk of cancer among diabetics. Glucose control appears to impact the risk of pancreatic cancer, though it may be an independent factor for some common tumors,” the study said. “Caution should be used when prescribing insulin to patients for diabetes management."
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