The Expanding Role of Metformin in Cancer: an Update on Antitumor Mechanisms and Clinical Development

Overview

Journal Target Oncol

Specialty Oncology

Date 2016 Feb 12

PMID 26864078

Citations 34

Authors

Jun Gong

Gauri Kelekar

James Shen

John Shen

Sukhpreet Kaur

Monica Mita

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Metformin has been used for nearly a century to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus. Epidemiologic studies first identified the association between metformin and reduced risk of several cancers. The anticancer mechanisms of metformin involve both indirect or insulin-dependent pathways and direct or insulin-independent pathways. Preclinical studies have demonstrated metformin's broad anticancer activity across a spectrum of malignancies. Prospective clinical trials involving metformin in the chemoprevention and treatment of cancer now number in the hundreds. We provide an update on the anticancer mechanisms of metformin and review the results thus far available from prospective clinical trials investigating metformin's efficacy in cancer.

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