Diabetes Drug for Cancer
April 23, 2005
A DRUG commonly used to treat diabetes could help prevent cancer tumours, university researchers claim.
Tests by University of Dundee scientists suggest people with Type 2 diabetes who take metformin may have a reduced risk of developing cancer of more than 25%.
The study was carried out by Professor Dario Alessi, of the university’s School of Life Sciences, Professor Andrew Morris, Scotland’s leading clinician on diabetes, and Dr Josie Evans, an epidemiologist from the university’s Medical School.
The team compared diabetic patients with and without cancer to see how many had been treated with metformin.
The drug ‘switches on’ the enzyme AMPK which may inhibit cancer cell growth