A study conducted by researchers from the Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo (ICESP) and the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP), and published in BMC Cancer, part of Springer Nature, shows that sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i)—widely used for diabetes management—may increase survival and reduce hospitalizations in patients with gastrointestinal cancer treated with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.
Real-world data analysis of over 9,000 patients showed that SGLT2i use was associated with:
- Higher 5-year survival rates in both men (HR 0.568; 95% CI 0.534–0.605) and women (HR 0.561; 95% CI 0.513–0.614);
- Lower risk of hospitalization;
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Safety of use across different types of gastrointestinal cancer.
According to Lucas Evaristo Ferreira Flausino, a student at FMUSP and the study’s lead author, “The data reinforce the potential for repositioning SGLT2i as adjuvants in cancer treatment—a promising, safe, and low-cost approach that now needs to be validated in clinical trials.”
The article also included contributions from researcher Alexis Germán Murillo Carrasco (ICESP/FMUSP), researcher Tatiane Katsue Furuya (ICESP/FMUSP), Prof. Wen-Jan Tuan (Penn State College of Medicine), and Prof. Roger Chammas (ICESP/FMUSP).
