Considering what I am about to write, I feel a little guilty about the post headline here. But these sensational headlines are just the point: the media is abuzz the last few days with the possibility that Lantus insulin “may be linked” to cancer.
The rumors started late last week, when the media got wind that a prominent diabetes 
researcher forecasted that an “earthquake” event was about to hit that would compromise the safety profile of Lantus. This leak came nearly two weeks before the data was actually published in the European journal Diabetologia.
For both academia and the pharma industry, a leak like this is just so irresponsible! Why? Because it kicks off just the kind of anti-Avandia media frenzy that frightens patients off their meds, without real substantiation of the potential danger. In this case, the research data wasn’t even out yet, and already headlines like mine, above, using the “C-word” (cause) were appearing far and wide.
Now that the data is actually out, there are a few
Important Things to Know About This Story:
1) No cause was shown! “There was no evidence that Lantus actually causes cancer, but it might possibly cause any existing cancer cells to grow and divide more rapidly,” according to Ulf Smith, president of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).
2) Backing up for a moment, the study conducted here was not your usual kind, where one group takes the drug and another gets a placebo (unethical in a case like this, of course). Rather, researchers took recorded data (housed in databases) from 127,031 patients in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Scotland and “crunched the numbers” to look for associations with instances of cancer.
Given that it’s just a bunch of numbers correlating insulin use with a handful of different types of cancer, the data is pretty inconclusive. Even the American Diabetes Association has come out with a statement that “the data within these studies and between these studies are conflicting and confusing.”
3) The official recommendation to patients using Lantus now by the ADA and other expert groups is not to stop using insulin, and also to “consult your doctor” if you have concerns. I have to agree with the much-quoted diabetes analyst David Kliff that this approach is a bit lame.
That is, while I agree that it’s important for PWDs not to toss aside their insulin, I’d also like to know how the many physicians across this country are supposed to be prepared to consult with their diabetes patients when they’ve had no time to analyze the data? And how, after reading these confusing studies, can they effectively tell their patients anything other than “there might be a link between Lantus and cancer?”
4) As eloquently pointed out by Jenny over at Diabetes Update, the population studied was most likely a very high-risk group for cancer due to a number of other factors, leading with running consistently high blood sugars for many years — most likely long before being prescribed Lantus. Many had probably also been taking “cocktails of powerful oral drugs for years before starting Lantus.” Therefore, to pin the cancer correlation solely on Lantus insulin is probably misleading at best.
Nevertheless, Jenny concludes that “this latest alarm… is probably GOOD news, because it will trigger some serious research into the cancer profile of all the analog insulins and perhaps, even, of the oral diabetic drugs.”
Personally, my prediction is a bit different: I’m betting that after a lot of bantering about by various researchers and industry experts, we’ll end up with data illustrating a TINY risk in people who already had or are already very high-risk for cancer. Meanwhile, the damage has been done in the sense that people who really need it are afraid to take their insulin.
I say this even with the knowledge of new, more conclusive evidence that the oral drug Januvia may indeed spur pancreatic cancer.
When it comes to insulin, as long as the risk of side effects is tiny, which I’m assuming it will be, we patients will have to weigh the pros and cons: the consequences of not taking insulin when you need it are more immediately damaging, are they not?
Whether the cancer risk with Lantus proves significant or not, the scare is surely hurting drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis, which is not good for us either, in terms of rising price-points and possible curtailing of drug development.
*Sigh* In the end, it’s always the patients who suffer most.
This is what you wrote back to me.{Author: Microsoft Points
Comment:
I don’t believe everything i read on the internet and i def don’t believe that lantus can cause cancer…}
Maybe you work for the drug company?
I don’t lie and I make a point of it! Maybe you should come visit me, so you can see first hand of the hell I go through on a daily basis. I challenge that and I also challenge the fact that you don’t know what the hell you are talking about!
Maybe you should see all the medical records that prove some of these things that I go through, so you can stop saying wonderful things about this synthetic man made drug to help us diabetics, perhaps you will able to sleep better at night?
Maybe you should start finding a solution to the problem instead of making accusations to people like us by calling us liars! You don’t know me!
Drug companies are getting quite fat with people like us that are sick and have to buy these expensive drugs. I heard that some of these drug companies pay some doctors to promote these drugs. The drug companies are getting richer while we are dying or going through hell. This is ok to you is it?
I’m worried. My doc ask me to change my Lantus to NPH just for precaution.
Gustavo,
I feel very saddened that you are so worried. I hope that your own illnesses will soon get better. I was so angry when I wrote on this page on January 25th.
I am extremely angry with the media and the commercials that are pushing drugs on people like us. I take so many medications and I can’t seem to come to a happy place. I’m always in excruciating pain and the drugs make them worse or something else happens to me. Can you believe that the drug companies in many cases pay the doctors to push drugs on there patients. Some of these drugs have major side effects to some people and no one body is the same. We all have our own allergies to things and I don’t care about those people that have blinders on, because allot of these people don’t understand what we go through, because there simple goal is to make money. Shame on them for putting us through this and not trying to understand where we are coming from.
My prayers are with you. Stay safe, keep your diet and excercise and tell your doctor if you are taking vitamins, because some vitamins may have side effects to certain medications. Take care
Veronica
My husband was diagnosed with diabetes in 1985. In l99l he was diagnosed with a stage 3 agressive bladder cancer. It was removed and there was no need for chemo or rad. because it was caught before it got into the wall. Ten years later his urologist found a second bladder tumor and removed it. Fast forward to 2008 when he was put on Lantus. In 2009 a third bladder tumor was found and removed. When I read about the possible cancer risk with Lantus we asked both the diabetic doctor and the urologist if my husband should remain on Lantus. They both shrugged their shoulders and said there had been some concern when it was first prescribed to patients but the scare was unfounded. Almost immediately he had a fourth bladder tumor. He began feeling poorly, his urologist said he had a testicle bacteria infection, put him on antibiotics. After three weeks he returned to urogolist and declared free of the bacteria. My husband said he still had some nodules and also was still sore. Doc said it takes time to get over the infection and did not order more testing or medication. About three weeks later my husband told his primary care doctor, further testing had to be done he just was feeling too sick and not himself. A cat scan was ordered and that afternoon the doctor called to say my husband had kidney cancer. This was January 25, 2011. He had the fourth bladder tumor removed Feb.2, hospilizaed Feb.14th with dehydration and exhaustion, kidney removal March 2, told it was removed without contaiming any other organs and got it all. April 25 he went to hospital with congestive heart faillure where the next day we found he had bone cancer. Also diabetic retinopothy (sp) began the last two years of his life. Another question as to Lantus involvement.
Certainly in my husband’s case it appears there is no question, at least in my mind, that Lantus did hasten the growth and progress of cancer. I would encourage anyone with a past cancer history to be very diligent. I don’t know that helps because certainly my husband was very diligent but for naught.