Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012:2012:240634.
doi: 10.5402/2012/240634. Epub 2012 Nov 14.

Insulin therapy and cancer in type 2 diabetes

Edoardo Mannucci  1
Affiliations

Insulin therapy and cancer in type 2 diabetes

Edoardo Mannucci. ISRN Endocrinol. 2012.

Abstract

Despite the availability of many other agents, insulin is widely used as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. In vitro, insulin stimulates the growth of cancer cells, through the interaction with insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) receptors and its own receptors. In observational surveys on type 2 diabetes, insulin therapy is associated with an increased incidence of several forms of cancer, although it is difficult to discriminate the effect of confounders from that of insulin itself. Randomized trials do not confirm the increased risk associated with insulin therapy, although they do not allow to rule out some negative effects on specific forms of cancer, at least at higher doses. Among insulin analogues, glargine has a higher affinity for the IGF-1 receptor and a greater mitogenic potency in vitro than human insulin, but it is extensively metabolized in vitro to products with low IGF-1 receptor affinity. Overall, epidemiological studies suggest a possible increase of risk with glargine, with respect to human insulin, only at high doses and for some forms of cancer (i.e., breast). Data from clinical trials do not confirm, but are still insufficient to totally exclude, such increased risk. However, beneficial effects of insulin outweigh potential cancer risks.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Zhou XH, Qiao Q, Zethelius B, et al. Diabetes, prediabetes and cancer mortality. Diabetologia. 2010;53(9):1867–1876. - PubMed
    1. Yang X, Ko GTC, So WY, et al. Associations of hyperglycemia and insulin usage with the risk of cancer in type 2 diabetes: the Hong Kong diabetes registry. Diabetes. 2010;59(5):1254–1260. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang P, Kang D, Cao W, Wang Y, Liu Z. Diabetes mellitus and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews. 2012;28(2):109–122. - PubMed
    1. Li D, Tang H, Hassan MM, Holly EA, Bracci PM, Silverman DT. Diabetes and risk of pancreatic cancer: a pooled analysis of three large case-control studies. Cancer Causes and Control. 2011;22(2):189–197. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jiang Y, Ben Q, Shen H, Lu W, Zhang Y, Zhu J. Diabetes mellitus and incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. European Journal of Epidemiology. 2011;26(11):863–876. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources