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The November 2012 Diabetologia, which publishes original research works on the study of diabetes, has a Scottish research article in it that compares hospitalized hip-fracture risks of thiazolidinediones, including pioglitazone (Actos), and other drugs prescribed for the treatment of diabetes.

For the record, “[h]ip fracture increased with cumulative exposure” only to thiazolidinediones. No association existed in regard to other diabetes medications evaluated. The study tracked “a subset of 173,113 individuals who first came under observation for drug exposures no more than 1 year after diagnosis of diabetes” from 1999, the year in which thiazolidinediones were first prescribed in Scotland, through 2008, the latest year in which data were available.

The research showed that for diabetics who took this class of drugs for two or more years, the estimated “excess mortality rate” for hip fracture in every 100,000 woman-years exceeded that for bladder cancer in every 100,000 person-years. The article reads that “fracture risks cannot be avoided by using pioglitazone instead of” Avandia, the other thiazolidinedione.

This summary prefaces something else noteworthy about this article, which was published in a European Association for the Study of Diabetes journal. There is something between the lines of the writings of its learned authors.

They used the link between the far too frequently realized risk of bladder cancer in Actos patients as the baseline for the study’s purpose, to prove that hip fracture associated with taking Actos and the other thiazolidinedione is an adverse reaction that the medical profession must take more seriously.

“Thus, hip fracture should be considered at least as important a potential adverse effect of pioglitazone exposure as bladder cancer to be balanced against its efficacy in reducing” the three-month average blood sugar reading for diabetics, according to the authors.

Here is research in which the unreasonable and unfortunately avoidable risk of bladder cancer from taking Actos is the measuring stick for other hypothesized adverse reactions with which diabetes-treatment drugs might be associated. This is where we are worldwide in medical science, when it comes to the bladder cancer risk of taking Actos.

The prevalence of bladder cancer in diabetics who were prescribed Actos is essentially benchmark research now. A study, which centered on hip fracture, could not ignore the elephant in the lab, the scientifically and anecdotally verified association between the heightened risk of bladder cancer and the taking of Actos.

The benchmark is not solely the province of science. The law also has quantifiable benchmarks of civil liability for patients who were prescribed Actos for an extended period and who developed bladder cancer that they could have averted had they been informed of the risk. Those figures are known as recoverable damages.

Bladder cancer, indeed cancer in general, is not simply a condition one has; it is a foe that one fights. Reich & Binstock’s Actos lawyers get it; thus they are fighters of a different sort. They fight for patients damaged by dangerous drugs such as Actos. If you are one of them or if you know someone who is, then Reich & Binstock can help.

Reich & Binstock [www.reichandbinstock.com] has a pharmaceutical injury team that injured Actos patients want representing them in Actos lawsuits. It does not cost anything to consult a Reich & Binstock Actos attorney in regard to whether there is an entitlement to compensation. The consultation is free-of-charge. Call Reich & Binstock toll-free at 1-866-LAW-2400.

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