title: Thyroid safety in patients treated with liraglutide.
abstract: During the last years, various novel anti-diabetic drugs have considerably enriched the therapeutic armamentarium for subjects with Type 2 diabetes. In the meantime, much interest has recently been focused on the potential cardiovascular and oncological adverse effects of these new therapies. As to glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) analogs, medullary thyroid tumors were reported to be more common in rodent toxicology studies with liraglutide, although the relevance of this finding in humans has been questioned. Analyses of sequential changes in calcitonin levels in several thousands of subjects did not reveal a relationship between liraglutide therapy and plasma calcitonin. Furthermore, no medullary thyroid cancer has been detected in humans taking liraglutide. Nevertheless, the long-term consequences of sustained GLP-1 receptor activation in the human thyroid remain unknown and deserve further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Oncological Endocrinology, AO Citta' della Salute e della Scienza-Molinette, Via Genova, 3, I-10137 Turin, Italy. mgallo4@cittadellasalute.to.it
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gallo
mesh_terms: D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D052216:Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000069450:Liraglutide; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D000069450:Liraglutide; D052216:Glucagon-Like Peptide 1