Metformin getting more popular among post menopausal women with diabetes and cancer

Emobileclinic Researchers’ corner

The risk of dieing by cancer reduced in post menopausal women who had diabetes and used Metformin in a recent study published on International Journal of cancer. Diabetic is known to increase the development of various cancers in post menopausal women which the study also pointed out.

For instance colon and endometrial cancer increases by 25% and 35% in post meno pausal diabetic women. Liver,pancreatic and non-Hodgkin lymphoma also increased with diabetes. The researchers however found an association with Metformin,cancer and type 2 diabetes . According to the study who compared two groups of women with cancers and one with diabetes, the risk of death was high by 45% among women with cancer and diabetes which was  reduced among women without diabetes. Interestingly the same risk was  found similar among women with diabetes who used Metformin and those without diabetes.

Metformin is a drug used alone or with other medications, including insulin, to treat type 2 diabetes (condition in which the body does not use insulin normally and, therefore, cannot control the amount of sugar in the blood). Metformin is in a class of drugs called biguanides. Metformin helps to control the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. It decreases the amount of glucose you absorb from your food and the amount of glucose made by your liver. Metformin also increases your body’s response to insulin, a natural substance that controls the amount of glucose in the blood. Metformin is not used to treat type 1 diabetes (condition in which the body does not produce insulin and therefore cannot control the amount of sugar in the blood).

The lead researcher,Zhihong Kong- a prof from Rosewell Park Cancer Institute feels their finding ”may provide more evidence that postmenopausal women with diabetes and cancer may benefit from metformin therapy compared to other anti-diabetes therapy”. According to him their study “suggest that diabetes remains a risk factor for cancer and cancer-related death, and metformin therapy, compared to other diabetes medications, may have an important role in [managing] diabetes-associated cancer.”