"Half of the youngsters do seem to maintain long-term control irrespective of treatment, and this is something we don’t want to lose sight of," he said. "This suggests there are two cohorts of patients: One that will continue to do well on monotherapy, and one that will fail very rapidly. If we could predict who those children will be at the time of diagnosis, that could have a substantial effect on our choice of treatment."
The study was sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Zeitler said he had no relevant financial disclosures. However, several of the coauthors did note financial relationships with various pharmaceutical companies, including Daiichi-Sankyo, Merck, Bristol-Meyers-Squibb, Jenny Craig/Nestle, and Medtronic.