Insulin glargine is used in the treatment of diabetes. A new study conducted by RIVM in association with the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research found no evidence for increased incidence of breast cancer in mice receiving insulin glargine. The study results are in line with previous studies that found insulin glargine did not increase the risk of breast cancer in patients with diabetes.
In the 1980s and 1990s, another type of insulin, AspB10, was shown to cause breast cancer in rats, and was thus never used in humans. While insulin glargine is very similar to AspB10 , the RIVM study showed no association with the development of breast cancer. The study did not support signals few years ago that insulin glargine (Lantus®) could increase the risk of breast cancer in older women with type 2 diabetes.
The results of the RIVM study were published in the journal Breast Cancer Research on 18 February 2015.