Therapeutic Effects of Metformin on Cancer: A Possible Option in Cancer Chemotherapy

Asad Jamal Ansari

Abstract

Metformin is being used for an elongated period of an antidiabetic medicine for type 2 diabetes. It is used moreover as a monotherapy or in mixture with additional antidiabetic medications. The drug derived into importance in diabetes and other circumstances with cardiovascular risk after the landmark study of 1995 by the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study which highlighted its reputation. The usage of metformin, the usually given drug for type 2 diabetes, was frequently connected with the reduced hazard of the incidence of numerous kinds of cancers, particularly of colon and pancreas and hepatocellular carcinoma. This opinion was also established by the consequences of many meta-analyses. To expose the anticancer properties of metformin, preclinical studies resolute that metformin damages cellular metabolism and defeats oncogenic signaling pathways, PI3K/Akt, counting receptor tyrosine kinase, and mTOR pathways. Freshly, the anticancer probable of metformin has gained rising attention because of its repressing properties on cancer stem cells (CSCs), which are related with drug resistance, tumor metastasis, and relapse. Studies by means of numerous cancer models, counting breast, prostate, pancreatic, and colon, have established the strength of metformin in reducing CSCs through the directing of precise pathways involved in cell differentiation, metastasis, renewal, and metabolism. This review is intensive on the development made in understanding the antitumor consequence of metformin and its connotation with cancer therapy.

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