A recent study coauthored by GCDTR’s Roy Beck Jaeb Center for Health Research studied real-world data from approximately 300 million patient records in the Epic Cosmos database to assess pulmonary toxicity of technosphere insulin in people with diabetes. Key findings from this comprehensive safety analysis:
- Among 647 technosphere insulin users, zero lung cancer cases were diagnosed compared to two cases in 1,830 matched controls, demonstrating no increased lung cancer risk with inhaled insulin therapy.
- Only one case of COPD, emphysema, or chronic bronchitis was recorded in the inhaled insulin group compared to 27 cases in controls, representing a significantly lower risk with an odds ratio of 0.107.
- The analysis excluded individuals with pre-existing pulmonary conditions and followed patients for at least one-year post-treatment, providing robust evidence that technosphere insulin does not increase pulmonary toxicity concerns.
These findings address longstanding safety concerns that have limited widespread adoption of inhaledinsulin and support its use as a safe alternative to rapid-acting analogue insulin injections for postmeal glucosemanagement.
