More evidence that acts, a diabetes medicine, increases the risk of bladder cancer.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 (Healthday News) - A new study provides more evidence that links acts, a diabetes medicine, with an increase in the risk of bladder cancer.Research also finds that risk increases with the increase in use.
Acts (Pioglitazone) seems to increase the risk of bladder cancer by 63 percent, says Canadian researchers.The findings, which appear in the March 30 edition of The BMJ magazine, come from an analysis of almost 146,000 patients treated between 2000 and 2013.
The data also showed that the risk of bladder cancer increases whether acts is used for more than two years, or if someone takes more than 28,000 milligrams throughout life.
But the total risk is small.Even so, "the more drug accumulates in the system, the greater the risk," said the leading researcher, Laurent Azoulay, associate professor of oncology at the University of McGill, in Montreal.
Azoulay and its collaborators did not find a similar link between bladder and avandia cancer (Rosiglitazona), another diabetes medicine of the same class as acts.
"It seems to be a specific effect of the drug, not class," said Azoulay.
Takeda Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer of acts, published a forceful statement in response to the study.
"Takeda trusts the positive risk and benefit profile of pioglitazone. Two large long -term observational studies did not find a significant increase in the risk of bladder cancer in diabetic patients who took pioglitazone. This data includes a prospective cohort studyof 10 years, carried out by the University of Pennsylvania and Kaiser permanent in northern California and ... a great epidemiological study that used five databases of the European Union ... to investigate the cancer risk potentialBladder with the use of Pioglitazona, "said Elissa Johnsen, director of global product and planning communications.
Acts and Avandia are thiazolidatedionas, a drug class that helps reduce blood sugar by helping body cells to use insulin more efficiently.
Both medications have been available in the United States since the late 90s, said Azoulay, and both have a conflicting history.
Previous studies have linked Avandia with heart failure and heart disease, while in 2005 a clinical trial showed, unexpectedly, an increase in cases of bladder cancer among the people who took acts, he said.
Since then, the association between the use of acts and bladder cancer has been controversial, since the investigations have reported contradictory findings, the study authors said in the backup notes.
In the study, they explored the link between acts and bladder cancer when analyzing data on the Research Database on the United Kingdom Clinical Practice about 145,806 patients treated for the first time with diabetes medications between 2000 and 2013. They took inIt has other risk factors, such as age, sex, diabetes, smoking and alcohol -related disorders.
When compared to other kinds of diabetes medications, the highest risk of bladder cancer linked to acts was significant, the study found.
The reasons for acts, but did not advance, is associated with bladder cancer could be due to the fact that there are key differences between both drugs, Azoulay explained.
Acts addresses two different receptors that make cells more sensitive to insulin, whileAvandia goes to only one.The additional receiver on which acts influences could be the reason for the increase in the risk of bladder cancer, he said.
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The controversy over acts and Avandia is now mostly irrelevant, they point out diabetes experts, because newer and safest medications have replaced them.
"When these medications were first approved in the US. Uu., They were one of the very few options we had," said Dr. Kevin Pantone, endocrinologist of the Cleveland Clinic."Now, to a large extent due to the controversy over these agents in recent years, their recipe pattern has been reduced."
In 2008, the TiazolidineDionas formed 20 percent of the diabetes medication recipes issued by the Cleveland Clinic, said Pants.Five years later, in 2013, they formed only 7 percent of recipes for diabetes.
Dr. Caroline Messer, director of the Center for Pituitary and Neuroendocrine Disorders of the Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City, agreed that acts and Avandia are used little these days.
"I don't think I used acts since 2005, to be honest, or I have rarely used it," Messer said."Now I have so many drugs more than I don't have many reasons to turn to that."
Acts already has a warning on the label about the risk of bladder cancer, required by the FDA, said Azoulay.
But even with this new evidence, diabetes experts want acts to remain available as a treatment option.
Bladder cancer is an unusual disease, and it is still weird even after acts increase the risk, Pants pointed out.
Decisions about its use should be made according to the individual patient, said Dr. Robert Cougi, an endocrinologist at the Southside Hospital of Northwell Health in Bay Shore, New York.
"Acts is an oral medication for powerful and cheap diabetes that should not be taken from the market," according to Cougi."The clinical professional must decide whether acts is the appropriate medication for the patient. Obviously, patients with a history of bladder cancer or with a high risk should not receive acts."