Diabetes drug linked to higher heart attack risk

Avandia and competitor drug, Actos, are commonly used diabetes drugs. Avandia has been found having harmful effects since 2007 while Actos seems safer apparently.

2 studies published last week reported serious health warnings. One study, published in June 28 issue of JAMA, reviewed the data of 227,000 patients takng either Avandia or Actos, found that Avandia increased the risk of heart attack, stroke or death by 17%.

The second study, published in the Archive of Internal Medicine, analysed 56 clinical trials involving 35,000 patients confirmed these findings. The reserachers questioned why Avandia is still available on the market and why physicians would prescribe it to diabetics when there are other drugs without these side effects. They called for Avandia to be withdrawn from the market.

However, some doctors said that the evidence is inconclusive.

Source:
1). David Juurlink. "Rosiglitazone and the Case for Safety Over Certainty". JAMA. 2010;304(4):(doi:10.1001/jama.2010.954). free f/t

2). Steven Nissen; Kathy Wolski. "An Updated Meta-analysis of Risk for Myocardial Infarction and Cardiovascular Mortality". Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(14), free f/t

Does statin use reduce prostate cancer recurrence?

Statins is a common treatment to lower cholesterol but a study, published online in June 28 in Cancer, found that men taking statins before their prostate surgery were less likely to show signs of the cancer recurring.

The study reviewed the data of 1319 men who had prostatectomy and took statins when they had their operation and showed that they had a 30% lower risk of PSA recurrence compared to those not taking statins. The greater the dose of statins taken, the less likely the cancer was to reappear.

The researchers said if other studies support their findings, a RCT of statins is warranted. However, critics say that the statin users differed significantly from non-users at presentation, eg they were older and had higher BMI that might affect the association between the statin use and risk for biochemical recurrence, also previous studies had mixed findings.

Another study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, with 691 men underwent radiotherapy, showed a significant association between statin use and decreased biochemical recurrence.

Source:
1). Hamilton RJ, Banez LL, Aronson WJ et al. "Results from the Shared Equal Access Regional Cancer Hospital (SEARCH) Database". Cancer, [Early online publication] June 28 2010

2). "Statin Use and Risk of Prostate Cancer Recurrence in Men Treated With Radiation Therapy". Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 28, No 16 (June 1), 2010: pp. 2653-2659
Early Release 10.1200/JCO.2009.27.3003 on April 26 2010