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According to researchers, TZD drugs pioglitazone or rosiglitazone, which account for up to 20% of the medication prescribed for diabetes in the US, give patients 2 to 3 times more risk of bladder cancer after 5 or more years taking the drugs, as opposed to those who took sulfonylurea drugs, like glipizide. Diabetes patients are already known to have a slightly greater chance of developing this cancer as compared to the general population, which the authors suggest makes this finding especially important. About 40 out of 100,000 diabetes patients typically eventually develop cancer of the bladder, versus 30 in 100,000 out of the general population. The analysis showed that 170 patients per 100,000 taking TZDs, for 5 or more years, were expected to develop this disease; for those taking sulfonylurea drugs, about 60 in 100,000 would develop bladder cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute August 9, 2012, doi: 10.1093/jnci/djs328 |
