Is it still worth pursuing the repurposing of metformin as a cancer therapeutic?

Over the past 15 years, there has been great interest in the potential to repurpose the diabetes drug, metformin, as a cancer treatment. However, despite considerable efforts being made to investigate its efficacy in a number of large randomised clinical trials in different tumour types, results hav...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of cancer Vol. 128; no. 6; pp. 958 - 966
Main Authors: Lord, Simon R, Harris, Adrian L
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Nature Publishing Group 06.04.2023
Subjects:
Antidiabetics
Breast cancer
Cancer
Cancer therapies
Cell growth
Chemotherapy
Clinical trials
Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus
Drug dosages
Drug Repositioning
Glucose
Humans
Hypoglycemic Agents - therapeutic use
Insulin
Kinases
Metabolism
Metabolites
Metformin
Metformin - therapeutic use
Neoplasms - drug therapy
Oncology
Pharmacodynamics
Radiation therapy
Tumors
ISSN:0007-0920, 1532-1827, 1532-1827
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Over the past 15 years, there has been great interest in the potential to repurpose the diabetes drug, metformin, as a cancer treatment. However, despite considerable efforts being made to investigate its efficacy in a number of large randomised clinical trials in different tumour types, results have been disappointing to date. This perspective article summarises how interest initially developed in the oncological potential of metformin and the diverse clinical programme of work to date including our contribution to establishing the intra-tumoral pharmacodynamic effects of metformin in the clinic. We also discuss the lessons that can be learnt from this experience and whether a further clinical investigation of metformin in cancer is warranted.
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ISSN:0007-0920
1532-1827
1532-1827
DOI:10.1038/s41416-023-02204-2