Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) frequently have coexisting heart failure (HF) or chronic kidney disease (CKD), making long-term safety assessment increasingly relevant as sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors become more widely used across cardiometabolic care. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Clinical Diabetes and Healthcare found no significant increase in overall cancer risk associated with SGLT2 inhibitors across randomized trial populations.
The analysis included 28 randomized controlled trials involving 98,297 participants and evaluated overall and site-specific cancer risk with SGLT2 inhibitors. Searches of PubMed, CENTRAL, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.gov included studies published through April 16, 2024.
Findings
- Overall cancer risk was not significantly increased with SGLT2 inhibitors compared with controls (RR 1.05; 95% CI 0.99-1.12).
- No significant association was observed for common cancers, including breast and bladder cancer.
- Cancer risk findings remained consistent among patients with HF (RR 1.03; 95% CI 0.91-1.18), CKD (RR 1.02; 95% CI 0.90-1.16), and T2DM-related comorbidities.
- Findings were similar across different SGLT2 inhibitors.
The analysis suggested that SGLT2 inhibitors were not associated with increased overall or site-specific cancer risk across randomized trial populations. However, additional long-term data may help further clarify safety across different patient populations.
