Diabetes Drug Fights Breast Cancer
Diabetes Drug Fights Breast Cancer
Sept. 14, 2009 - The next breakthrough breast cancer treatment may bea diabetes drug already on the shelves of nearly everypharmacy.
The drug is metformin, availablegenerically and under brand names such as Glucophage and Fortamet. A growing body of evidence suggests thatdiabetes patients taking metformin are less likely to get cancer, and have betteroutcomes if they do get cancer, than those not taking the drug.
Now Harvard researcher Kevin Struhl, PhD, and colleagues find that metformincan kill breastcancer stem cells, thought to be the cells responsible for breast cancerspread and recurrence.
And in mice carrying human breast cancers, metformin made standardchemotherapy vastly more effective. Mice treated with the combination remaincancer-free for four months, unlike mice treated with either drug alone.
"We have discovered new properties of metformin that can be of some use incancer treatment and even prevention," Struhl said at a news conference held toannounce the findings.
While his current study looked at metformin's effects on breast cancer,Struhl says the drug may affect other types of cancer as well.
"Although our studies were pretty much done on breast cancer cells, a lot ofthe principles are not specific just to breast cancer," Struhl said. "A lot ofdata shows lower cancer risk -- not just breast cancer -- in people takingmetformin for diabetes."
What's so special about yet another drug that kills cancer cells inmice?
For one thing, the kind of cancer cells metformin targets are cancer stemcells, which are resistant to standard chemotherapy.
"This is the first time it's been shown that metformin may have an effect onthese very resistant cancer cells. It is very exciting research," Dana-FarberCancer Institute researcher Jennifer A Ligibel, MD, said at the newsconference.
The very existence of cancer stem cells has been debated. That debate is now"water under the bridge," Frank Rauscher, PhD, suggested at the newsconference. Rauscher, a cancer researcher at the Wistar Institute, iseditor-in-chief of Cancer Research, which published the Struhl study intoday's advance online edition.
The drug is metformin, availablegenerically and under brand names such as Glucophage and Fortamet. A growing body of evidence suggests thatdiabetes patients taking metformin are less likely to get cancer, and have betteroutcomes if they do get cancer, than those not taking the drug.
Now Harvard researcher Kevin Struhl, PhD, and colleagues find that metformincan kill breastcancer stem cells, thought to be the cells responsible for breast cancerspread and recurrence.
And in mice carrying human breast cancers, metformin made standardchemotherapy vastly more effective. Mice treated with the combination remaincancer-free for four months, unlike mice treated with either drug alone.
"We have discovered new properties of metformin that can be of some use incancer treatment and even prevention," Struhl said at a news conference held toannounce the findings.
While his current study looked at metformin's effects on breast cancer,Struhl says the drug may affect other types of cancer as well.
"Although our studies were pretty much done on breast cancer cells, a lot ofthe principles are not specific just to breast cancer," Struhl said. "A lot ofdata shows lower cancer risk -- not just breast cancer -- in people takingmetformin for diabetes."
Metformin Kills Cancer Stem Cells
What's so special about yet another drug that kills cancer cells inmice?
For one thing, the kind of cancer cells metformin targets are cancer stemcells, which are resistant to standard chemotherapy.
"This is the first time it's been shown that metformin may have an effect onthese very resistant cancer cells. It is very exciting research," Dana-FarberCancer Institute researcher Jennifer A Ligibel, MD, said at the newsconference.
The very existence of cancer stem cells has been debated. That debate is now"water under the bridge," Frank Rauscher, PhD, suggested at the newsconference. Rauscher, a cancer researcher at the Wistar Institute, iseditor-in-chief of Cancer Research, which published the Struhl study intoday's advance online edition.