Written question asked by Tim Loughton (Conservative) on Tuesday, 9 November 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 18 November 2004. It was answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Labour) on Thursday, 18 November 2004 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what research he has received on possible links between the use of insulin by type 2 diabetes patients and an increased risk of cancer. - Inc refs to http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/Database and http://www.cancerportfolio.org.

Answer: Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has received on possible links between the use of insulin by type 2 diabetes patients and an increased risk of cancer. [197986] Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department is not aware of any United Kingdom funded research in this area. A summary of the results of a single study into insulin therapy and colorectal cancer risk among type 2 diabetes patients conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine can be found at http:// www.ncbi.nih.gov/Database. Details of a small number of current American studies, including research Investigating whether insulin-like growth factor-1 is associated with an increased risk of colorectal, breast and endometrial cancer, can be found on the International Cancer Research Portfolio website at http://www.cancerportfolio.org.

Secondary information