Sodium‐glucose cotransporter‐2 inhibitors and the risk of lung cancer among patients with type 2 diabetes

We sought to determine whether the use of sodium‐glucose cotransporter‐2 (SGLT‐2) inhibitors is associated with a decreased risk of incident lung cancers among patients with type 2 diabetes. We assembled a new‐user, active comparator cohort of SGLT‐2 inhibitor and dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 (DPP‐4) inhibitor users using the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink. We fit Cox proportional hazards models with propensity score fine stratification weighting to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for incident lung cancer. Crude incidence rates were 0.94 per 1000 person‐years among 69 675 SGLT‐2 inhibitor users followed for a median of 2.4 years and 1.45 per 1000 person‐years among 151 495 DPP‐4 inhibitor users followed for a median of 3.7 years. No reduced short‐term risk of lung cancer was observed among SGLT‐2 inhibitor users after weighting (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.77–1.21). Further research with a longer follow‐up period may be warranted.