New data published today suggest that there is a “possible link” between French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis’s Lantus insulin for diabetes and a higher risk of cancer, according to Diabetologia , the journal in which the data were published. The European Association for the Study of Diabetes , which publishes the journal, also made an “urgent call for more research” studying Lantus and cancer. It said the concern was specific to artificial insulin like Lantus, not human insulin, and urged patients not to stop taking their insulin but to consult their doctor if concerned. Of the four studies published, the one that prompted the most concern was conducted on 127,000 insulin-treated patients from a German insurance database. Researchers, one from a British and another from a Swedish hospital, found that one additional person out of every 100 who used Lantus for an average of 1 1/2 years compared with human insulin was found to have cancer compared with those using human insulin. The

higher the dose of Lantus used, the greater the risk of cancer, they said. But results from three other studies, conducted in Sweden, Scotland and the U.K., were mixed. One also found a positive link while the other two showed no statistically significant link. Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson concluded that his “first-pass assessment” of the data “raises questions specifically about Lantus and the possibility that it causes cancer, as we had expected, but this is far from conclusive as the journal editors admit,” he wrote in his research note. Worries about the results had weighed on Sanofi’s stock, pushing it down more than 7% on Friday. The company told Dow Jones Newswires late Friday that “the results of these data clearly show that no definitive conclusions can be drawn regarding a possible causal relationship between Lantus use and the occurrence of malignancies.” Photo: Getty Images

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Study: Sanofi’s Lantus Insulin Has Possible Cancer Link