Pioglitazone: inexpensive; very effective at reducing HbA1c; no evidence of bladder cancer risk; plenty of evidence of cardiovascular benefit

We were disappointed to see in the recent article by Ripamonti et al., published in Diabetic Medicine (1), that there still are people pursuing a connection between pioglitazone and bladder cancer, despite all of the accumulated evidence that this association is a red herring (2). The possibility of a connection first came about during pre-clinical studies because of an association between pioglitazone and bladder cancer in male, but not female, rats; no such association was observed in other animals (2). Subsequently, a possible connection was raised in the PROActive Study (3). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.