Increased cancer risk with drug use among patients with diabetes: Are the biased methods the culprit?

摘要

Recently, a large number of studies that used large administrative databases have reported risk associations between cancer and the use of drugs among patients with diabetes, with increased, unchanged and decreased risks of cancer for the same individual drugs. These reports, especially those reporting increased cancer risks with the use of certain drugs, might have negatively impacted clinical practice in the management of patients with diabetes. For example, a study from the large Kaiser Permanente Northern California Diabetes Registry in the USA reported that the use of pioglitazone for 2 years or more was associated with increased bladder cancer risk. Mainly based on the study from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Diabetes Registry, the US Food and Drug Administration warned the public that pioglitazone use for more than 1 year might be associated with increased bladder cancer risk.