Demographics and cancer incidence rates for rapamycin-treated vs.-untreated human subjects between year 2002–2008.

To investigate possible effect of rapamycin use on cancer incidence rate in human populations, data were collected and extracted from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan. The information on 3,713 individuals who were subjected to rapamycin treatment (medical code: B023057151, B023363100) between 2002–2008 were obtained through NHI database from the records of outpatients, inpatients and pharmacies, all of which were enrolled and connected with the National Health Insurance system of Taiwan. The index day was assigned on the first day when rapamycin was used. Controls were selected from the ID file enrolled in the NHI program, which were matched with rapamycin users at a ratio of 1:4 by age, gender and index day. The diagnosis of malignancies was defined with the ICD-9-CM codes of 140–208. All enrolled subjects with a history of malignancies before the index day were excluded. These two cohorts were followed up until the development of cancer, termination of NHI program, or the end of the period of observation at December 31, 2010 to ensure a minimum follow up period of two years for every enrolled subject.a Cancer incidence is expressed as the number of cancers per 100,000 person-years.Demographics and cancer incidence rates for rapamycin-treated vs.-untreated human subjects between year 2002–2008.