How Do We Define Cure of Diabetes?

Abstract

The mission of the American Diabetes Association is “to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.” Increasingly, scientific and medical articles (1) and commentaries (2) about diabetes interventions use the terms “remission” and “cure” as possible outcomes. Several approved or experimental treatments for type 1 and type 2 diabetes (e.g., pancreas or islet transplants, immunomodulation, bariatric/metabolic surgery) are of curative intent or have been portrayed in the media as a possible cure. However, defining remission or cure of diabetes is not as straightforward as it may seem. Unlike “dichotomous” diseases such as many malignancies, diabetes is defined by hyperglycemia, which exists on a continuum and may be impacted over a short time frame by everyday treatment or events (medications, diet, activity, intercurrent illness). The distinction between successful treatment and cure is blurred in the case of diabetes. Presumably improved or normalized glycemia must be part of the definition of remission or cure. Glycemic measures below diagnostic cut points for diabetes can occur with ongoing medications (e.g., antihyperglycemic drugs, immunosuppressive medications after a transplant), major efforts at lifestyle change, a history of bariatric/metabolic surgery, or ongoing procedures (such as repeated replacements of endoluminal devices). Do we use the terms remission or cure for all patients with normal glycemic measures, regardless of how this is achieved? A consensus group comprised of experts in pediatric and adult endocrinology, diabetes education, transplantation, metabolism, bariatric/metabolic surgery, and (for another perspective) hematology-oncology met in June 2009 to discuss these issues. The group considered a wide variety of questions, including whether it is ever accurate to say that a chronic illness is cured; what the definitions of management, remission, or cure might be; whether goals of managing comorbid conditions revert to those of patients without diabetes if someone is …