Metformin Drug For Diabetes May Reduce Cancer Death Risk

In a new research, scientists found that Metformin which is a drug for type 2 diabetes could significantly reduced death risks for certain kinds of cancers in postmenopausal woman suffering from type 2 diabetes.

They have found that women who have type 2 diabetes has 45% chances higher in dying than those women who had cancer but did not have diabetes. 

Their study noted that women who has cancer who took metformin to treat their type 2 diabetes their risk of dying due to cancer is almost similar to those women who did not have diabetes.

"Metformin users, particularly long-term users, may be at lower risk of developing certain cancers and dying from cancer, compared to users of other anti-diabetes medications," the study said.

The reseach head author Zhihong Gong from Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York says the results may provide evidence that it may be more beneficial to use metformin as type 2 diabetes treatment than other drugs for postmenopausal women who have cancer.

The research studied 146,000 postmenopausal women aged between 50 and 79 years old from 1993 to 1998. The subjects had a 25% to 35% risk of developing colon and endometrial cancers, as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This risk is more than twice for cancers of the liver and pancreas.

Gong says that the results of their studies indicate that diabetes is a risk factor for cancer and cancer-associated death. It also show that Metformin therapy may have a more significant role in managing diabetes-associated cancers than other anti-diabetes treatments.