Metformin and cancer: An existing drug for cancer prevention and therapy

Metformin is a standard clinical drug used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and polycystic ovary syndrome. Recently, epidemiological studies and meta-analyses have revealed that patients with T2DM have a lower incidence of tumor development than healthy controls and that patients diagnosed w...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oncology letters 2018-01, Vol.15 (1), p.683-690
Main Authors: Zi, Fuming, Zi, Huapu, Li, Yi, He, Jingsong, Shi, Qingzhi, Cai, Zhen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antidiabetics
Cancer prevention
Diabetes
Health risk assessment
Insulin resistance
Kinases
Metformin
Methods
Mortality
Patient outcomes
Review
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Metformin is a standard clinical drug used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and polycystic ovary syndrome. Recently, epidemiological studies and meta-analyses have revealed that patients with T2DM have a lower incidence of tumor development than healthy controls and that patients diagnosed with cancer have a lower risk of mortality when treated with metformin, demonstrating an association between metformin and tumorigenesis. and studies have revealed that metformin has a direct antitumor effect, which may depress tumor proliferation and induce the apoptosis, autophagy and cell cycle arrest of tumor cells. The mechanism underpinning the antitumor effect of metformin has not been well established. Studies have demonstrated that reducing insulin and insulin-like growth factor levels in the peripheral blood circulation may lead to the inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling or activation of AMP-activated protein kinase, which inhibits mTOR signaling, a process that may be associated with the antitumor effect of metformin. The present review primarily focuses on the recent progress in understanding the function of metformin in tumor development.
ISSN:1792-1074
1792-1082
DOI:10.3892/ol.2017.7412