Studies from Germany, Sweden and Scotland, published last Friday in Diabetologia, suggest a “possible link” between the use of Lantus insulin and cancer.

The findings prompted the European Association for the Study of Diabetes to make an urgent call for additional research into the association.

The EASD added that patients who are presently taking the relatively new, synthetic insulin should continue to do so, although some might wish to consider alternative types of insulin.

Human insulin, the older form of the hormone, has been used for decades. Its safety is beyond doubt, according to the EASD. Lantus has been used widely, but only since 2000.

The German study looked at an insurance database containing information regarding 127,000 insulin-treated patients. Scientists found that patients who had used Lantus were more likely to be diagnosed with cancer, and the effect was dose-dependent.

Thus, in patients receiving a dose of 10u, patients taking Lantus had cancer rates that were 9% higher than those taking human insulin. For those receiving 50u, the increased risk associated with Lantus was 31%.
 
Diabetologia editor Edwin Gale and EASD president Ulf Smith had become aware of the German findings awhile ago, according to an EASD press release. They decided to seek confirmatory evidence prior to announcing them formally.

As a result, similar database-driven studies were carried out in Sweden, Scotland, and the UK.

The Swedish study showed that patients taking Lantus insulin alone had twice the risk of breast cancer. The Scottish study revealed a statistically insignificant increased risk for breast cancer. The UK study was entirely negative.

Gale and Smith, in their press release, emphasize that all the studies have important methodological limitations.

In particular, patients taking Lantus insulin tended to be older, more obese and to have higher blood pressure than those receiving other forms of insulin. These pre-treatment differences could by themselves explain any differences in cancer rates between the groups. (more…)

Things aren’t so good these days in Sergiyev Posad, the small town in northeastern Russia that is generally considered to be the birthplace of the matryoshka, the iconic nesting dolls that represent Russian folk culture and a simpler time, generally.

The wooden, black lacquered dolls that come in sets with each one fitting just so inside the next have become an endangered species, squeezed as they have been off vendors’ shelves by cheap plastic knock-offs from Asia and now threatened by the global economic slowdown.

The dolls are produced by hand in small factories or in  workshops by artisans that have spent years learning to use a lathe.

“The matryoshka is our face” to the world, Galina Subbota, the town’s deputy mayor told the Washington Post. “Even if it is not economically profitable, we can’t allow it to disappear from our lives.”

But in the setting of the Great Economic Crisis, souvenir shops have slashed orders and the tourists have all but vanished. Recently, nesting doll producers approached Moscow for financial aid which is necessary, they say, to save the industry from extinction.

In response, the Kremlin pledged to buy nearly $30 million worth of the dolls and began requiring  officials to distribute them as gifts.

But the artisans view the largesse with skepticism and have indicated they would prefer that Moscow cut export taxes and make it easier for them to obtain existing subsidies.

“For 12 years, I’ve heard the government talking about support for folk crafts,” Oleg Korotkov told the Post. The director of Semyonovskaya Painting, a nesting doll manufacturer that has seen sales drop more than 90% added, “unfortunately, there’s never any real help.”