A diabetes drug may also aid in cancer prevention.
A recent study found the drug could decrease the risk of cancer in women with type 2 diabetes by up to 32 percent, a Cleveland Clinic news release reported.
People suffering from type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of cancer and recurrence than those who have not been diagnosed with the condition. Some diabetes medicine has also been known to increase the risk of cancer development.
The research team compared two types of commonly prescribed diabetes drugs- insulin sensitizers and insulin secretagogues. Insulin sensitizers are effective in lowering blood sugar by increasing the liver, fat, and muscle's response to insulin while Insulin secretagogues so the same job by
"stimulating pancreatic beta cells to make more insulin."
"What this study shows us is that using insulin secretagogues to increase insulin production correlates with an increased cancer risk in women with type 2 diabetes," Sangeeta Kashyap, M.D., an endocrinologist and associate professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic's Endocrinology & Metabolism Institute, said in the news release. "By contrast, insulin sensitizers cut insulin levels and can decrease cancer growth. So, clearly, when prescribing anti-diabetic medications, it's important to consider the impact a drug has on fueling cancer growth."
The team analyzed data from 25,623 patients that were registered to the Cleveland Clinic Diabetes Registry. The patients had 48,051 registered cancer occurrences combined.
The researchers were able to identify 890 cancer cases and found the most commonly-diagnosed types in the diabetic patients were prostate and breast cancer, which accounted for 25 percent of the occurrences.
The team concluded that women taking insulin sensitizers had a 21 percent lower risk of developing cancer than those on insulin secretagogues.
The team did not see a significant difference in men regardless of what diabetes drug they were prescribed.
The insulin sensitizer, thiazolidinedione, was found to decrease the risk of cancer by 32 percent.
"The findings in this study contribute to existing research in the field on diabetic patients and their increased cancer risk. Further research is needed to examine the impact of oral diabetes therapy on cancer risk and development," the news release reported.
