No link found between various insulins and breast cancer

(HealthDay)—Various types of insulins are not associated with breast cancer risk, according to a study published online Aug. 15 in Diabetes Care.

Lamiae Grimaldi-Bensouda, Ph.D., from LA-SER and the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Paris, and colleagues examined the association between individual insulins (glargine, aspart, lispro and human insulin) and breast cancer in 775 incident cases of primary invasive or in situ carcinoma breast cancer in women with diabetes and 3,050 matched community controls without diabetes.

After a mean insulin exposure of 3.2 years, the researchers found that, after adjusting for various factors, the odds ratio of breast cancer was 1.04 for glargine, 1.23 for lispro, 0.95 for aspart, and 0.81 for human insulin. There were no differences between glargine and other types of insulins, and the results were unaffected by insulin dosage, duration of use, and tumor stage.

"This international study found no difference in the risk of developing breast cancer in patients with diabetes among the different types of insulin with short- to mid-term duration of use," Grimaldi-Bensouda and colleagues conclude.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.