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According to a study published in British Medical Journal (BMJ) , a drug for treating type 2 diabetes called Pioglitazone is linkedto a higher risk of bladder cancer and taking the drug continuouslyfor longer than two years doubles the risk. The researchers stress,however, that the risk in absolute terms is relatively low with upto 137 extra cases per 100,000 person years. Rosiglitazone, which is a similar drug, showed no increased risk.Both pioglitazone and rosiglitazone are thiazolidinediones, whichhelp control blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes and are known to increase the risk of heart failure , yet following a safety review, the European Medicines Agency(EMA) decided to keep pioglitazone on the market. A Canadian team of researchers decided to investigate ifpioglitazone was linked to a higher risk of bladder cancer in people with type 2 diabetes and after obtaining data from theGeneral Practice Research Database (GPRD), they evaluated 115,727patients who initiated diabetes therapy from 1988 to 2009. The GPRDcontains anonymous patient records from over 600 UK GPs. The teamidentified cases of bladder cancer and matched them to up to 20healthy control patients. The results revealed that from 376 cases that were matched against6,699 controls, 470 patients were diagnosed with bladder cancerduring the average 4.6 years of follow-up, which translates to arate of 89 per 100,000 person years, whilst the rate of bladdercancer in the general UK population aged 65 years and above is 73per 100,000 person years. Patients who had taken pioglitazone at any time were found to havea 83% higher risk of bladder cancer, which translates into 74 per100,000 person years. The figures increased to 88 per 100,000person years for those who had taken the drug for two years orlonger and increased even further, to 137 per 100,000 person yearsthose who had taken 28,000mg or more. The researchers cross-checked the results in several furtheranalyses, but the results remained consistent, and "provideevidence that pioglitazone is associated with an increased risk ofbladder cancer, whereas no increased risk was observed with thethiazolidinedione rosiglitazone." They believe that these links may have been underestimated duringearlier observational studies and comment that doctors, patientsand regulatory agencies "should be aware of this association whenassessing the overall risks and benefits of this therapy." Dominique Hillaire-Buys and Jean-Luc Faillie from the Department ofMedical Pharmacology and Toxicology in Montpellier, France commentin a linked editorial: "It can confidently be assumed thatpioglitazone increases the risk of bladder cancer. It also seemsthat this association could have been predicted earlier." They continue saying that in view of pioglitazone's benefits ofreducing cardiovascular events being questionable, they remarkthat, "prescribers who are ultimately responsible for therapeuticchoices can legitimately question whether the benefit-risk ratio ofpioglitazone is still acceptable for their patients with diabetes." Written By Petra Rattue Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today Additional References Citations. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as E-light IPL RF , IPL Beauty Machine, and more. For more , please visit Diode Laser Hair Removal Machine today!
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