Pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort analysis

Abstract Background Whether pioglitazone may affect breast cancer risk in female diabetes patients is not conclusive and has not been investigated in the Asian populations. Methods The reimbursement database of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance was used to enroll an unmatched cohort and a propensit...

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Main Author: Chin-Hsiao Tseng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2022-05-01
Series:BMC Cancer
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-022-09660-8
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author Chin-Hsiao Tseng
author_facet Chin-Hsiao Tseng
author_sort Chin-Hsiao Tseng
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background Whether pioglitazone may affect breast cancer risk in female diabetes patients is not conclusive and has not been investigated in the Asian populations. Methods The reimbursement database of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance was used to enroll an unmatched cohort and a propensity score-matched cohort of ever users and never users of pioglitazone in female patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes during 1999–2008. The patients were alive on January 1, 2009 and were followed up for breast cancer incidence until December 31, 2011. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios for ever users and tertiles of cumulative duration of pioglitazone therapy versus never users, and for cumulative duration of pioglitazone therapy treated as a continuous variable. Three models were created for the unmatched cohort and the matched cohort, respectively: 1) without adjustment for covariates; 2) after adjustment for covariates that differed with statistical significance (P-value < 0.05) between ever users and never users; and 3) after adjustment for all covariates. Results There were 174,233 never users and 6926 ever users in the unmatched cohort; and 6926 never users and 6926 ever users in the matched cohort. After a median follow-up of 2.8 years, the numbers of incident breast cancer were 1044 in never users and 35 in ever users in the unmatched cohort and were 41 and 35, respectively, in the matched cohort. Hazard ratios suggested a null association between pioglitazone and breast cancer in all three models in either the unmatched cohort or the matched cohort. The overall hazard ratio after adjustment for all covariates was 0.758 (95% confidence interval: 0.539–1.065) in the unmatched cohort and was 0.824 (95% confidence interval: 0.524–1.296) in the matched cohort. None of the hazard ratios for the tertiles of cumulative duration of pioglitazone therapy and for the cumulative duration being treated as a continuous variable were statistically significant. Conclusions This study suggests a null association between pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, because of the small breast cancer cases and the limited follow-up time, further studies are warranted to confirm our findings.
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spelling doaj.art-bcfc3a45ab314951aee125770593cc072022-12-22T03:27:03ZengBMCBMC Cancer1471-24072022-05-0122111110.1186/s12885-022-09660-8Pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort analysisChin-Hsiao Tseng0Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University College of MedicineAbstract Background Whether pioglitazone may affect breast cancer risk in female diabetes patients is not conclusive and has not been investigated in the Asian populations. Methods The reimbursement database of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance was used to enroll an unmatched cohort and a propensity score-matched cohort of ever users and never users of pioglitazone in female patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes during 1999–2008. The patients were alive on January 1, 2009 and were followed up for breast cancer incidence until December 31, 2011. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios for ever users and tertiles of cumulative duration of pioglitazone therapy versus never users, and for cumulative duration of pioglitazone therapy treated as a continuous variable. Three models were created for the unmatched cohort and the matched cohort, respectively: 1) without adjustment for covariates; 2) after adjustment for covariates that differed with statistical significance (P-value < 0.05) between ever users and never users; and 3) after adjustment for all covariates. Results There were 174,233 never users and 6926 ever users in the unmatched cohort; and 6926 never users and 6926 ever users in the matched cohort. After a median follow-up of 2.8 years, the numbers of incident breast cancer were 1044 in never users and 35 in ever users in the unmatched cohort and were 41 and 35, respectively, in the matched cohort. Hazard ratios suggested a null association between pioglitazone and breast cancer in all three models in either the unmatched cohort or the matched cohort. The overall hazard ratio after adjustment for all covariates was 0.758 (95% confidence interval: 0.539–1.065) in the unmatched cohort and was 0.824 (95% confidence interval: 0.524–1.296) in the matched cohort. None of the hazard ratios for the tertiles of cumulative duration of pioglitazone therapy and for the cumulative duration being treated as a continuous variable were statistically significant. Conclusions This study suggests a null association between pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, because of the small breast cancer cases and the limited follow-up time, further studies are warranted to confirm our findings.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-022-09660-8Breast cancerDiabetes mellitusPioglitazoneTaiwan
spellingShingle Chin-Hsiao Tseng
Pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort analysis
BMC Cancer
Breast cancer
Diabetes mellitus
Pioglitazone
Taiwan
title Pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort analysis
title_full Pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort analysis
title_fullStr Pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort analysis
title_full_unstemmed Pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort analysis
title_short Pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort analysis
title_sort pioglitazone and breast cancer risk in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus a retrospective cohort analysis
topic Breast cancer
Diabetes mellitus
Pioglitazone
Taiwan
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-022-09660-8
work_keys_str_mv AT chinhsiaotseng pioglitazoneandbreastcancerriskinfemalepatientswithtype2diabetesmellitusaretrospectivecohortanalysis