“Tailored treatment could transform type 2 diabetes care”

- study by University of Dundee

The University of Dundee, a world-renowned research-based University in Scotland conducted a studyon people with type 2 diabetes, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Exeter and Madras Diabetes Research Foundation. The University’s School of Medicine has established a means of determining how people with type 2 diabetes differ from each other, and how clinical variation between them affects their long-term risks and response to treatment.

The result even showed that tailored treatment could transform type 2 diabetes care. The research was conducted on around 23,000 people. More than 4 million people in UK have type 2 diabetes, with complications arising from the condition including life-threatening heart & kidney disease, blindness and amputation in the UK.

Ewan Pearson, Professor of Diabetic Medicine, University of Dundee commented “clinically, we need to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to the management of people with type 2 diabetes and be more precise in the care of patients. Our study demonstrates how we can look at an individual with type 2 diabetes and illustrate intuitively the main reasons they have diabetes and use this to manage them better to reduce their risks, he added.”

The study speaks of the different mechanisms within everyone’s body. For example, if there are three women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 60. One may only be slightly overweight and have developed diabetes due to reduced insulin production from the pancreas. She will have slow progression of her diabetes and lower risk of complications. The second, may have particularly high blood pressure and be more prone to eye complications. The third may be very overweight with high blood fats and be more resistant to the effects of insulin, meaning she would be at increased risk of heart disease. They all have type 2 diabetes but for very different reasons and with very different profiles, meaning that different treatments may result in better outcomes, depending on the patient’s heath profile.

Further commenting on this research, Anand Nair, the Lead Analyst, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, says“Type 2 diabetes is a complex disease caused by many different mechanisms. Some people develop type 2 diabetes due to different mechanisms than others and can therefore differ dramatically in their clinical characteristics, such as their body weight, blood fat, blood pressure or their genes. This new approach helps to greatly simplify this complexity for both clinicians and patients.”