• Li Wei, Thomas M MacDonald, and Isla S Mackenzie.
• Medicines Monitoring Unit, Division of Medicine and Therapeutics, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee, Scotland, UK. li@memo.dundee.ac.uk
• Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2013 Jan 1;75(1):254-9.

AimTo examine whether exposure to pioglitazone use is associated with increased incidence of bladder cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.MethodA cohort study was done in the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) between 2001 and 2010. Two hundred and seven thousand seven hundred and fourteen patients aged ≥40 years with type 2 diabetes were studied (23,548 exposed to pioglitazone and 184,166 exposed to other antidiabetic medications but not pioglitazone). The association between pioglitazone and risk of bladder cancer was assessed by a Cox regression model. A propensity score matched analysis was done in a group of patients without missing baseline characteristics data.ResultsSixty-six and 803 new cases of bladder cancer occurred in the pioglitazone and other group, respectively (rates of 80.2 (95% CI 60.8, 99.5) and 81.8 (95% CI 76.2, 87.5) per 100,000 person-years respectively). Pioglitazone did not increase the risk of bladder cancer significantly compared with the other antidiabetic drugs treatment group, (adjusted hazard ratio (HR), 1.16, 95% CI 0.83, 1.62). In a matched propensity score analysis in which both groups had similar baseline characteristics (17,249 patients in each group), the adjusted HR was 1.22 (95% CI 0.80, 1.84).ConclusionThe results suggest that pioglitazone may not be significantly associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes.© 2012 The Authors. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology © 2012 The British Pharmacological Society.

18 keywords...

hide…