(dailyRx)
A low-cost, proven medication is taking on another cancer. Metformin has gone toe-to-toe with pancreatic cancer stem cells and won.
When the widely used diabetes drug metformin was combined with standard chemotherapy, the combo therapy wiped out pancreatic cancer stem cells in one fell swoop, and they didn’t come back.
If these findings hold up in humans, we could be looking at being able to shrink pancreatic cancer tumors to help patients live longer.
These are conclusions of data Christopher Heeschen, MD, PhD, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s Pancreatic Cancer: Progress and Challenges conference, held June 18-21, 2012.
Cancer stem cells are the most difficult to destroy. They’re involved throughout the cancer process. They not only start cancer growth, but make chemotherapy treatments stop working. They are very tough customers.
Recently, researchers have learned that cancer stem cells are the key barriers to standard therapies working on pancreatic cancer.
“Therefore, efficiently targeting these cells will be crucial for achieving higher cure rates in patients with pancreatic cancer,” said Dr. Heeschen, professor for experimental medicine at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid, Spain.
“Our newly emerging data now indicate that metformin, a widely used and well-tolerated drug for the treatment of diabetes, is capable of efficiently eliminating these cells.”
Apparently, cancer stem cell metabolism melted, the cells died when pre-treated with metformin, and the tumors didn’t return.
“Intriguingly, in all tumors treated with metformin to date, relapse of disease was efficiently prevented and there were no noticeable adverse effects,” Dr. Heeschen said.
He thinks it’s time to head to clinical trials. Dr. Heeschen and his team are waiting for the results of a study testing the diabetes drug as a maintenance treatment for people with late stage pancreatic cancer.
Metformin has been seen to have effective cancer-fighting properties against a number of different malignancies.
It should be noted that research presented at conferences is considered preliminary before it’s published in a peer-reviewed journal.
The American Cancer Society estimates that each year in the United States, 44,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer will emerge, and it will cause close to 38,000 deaths. It is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, and at one and five years after diagnosis, only 25% and 6% of patients are still alive, respectively.
Ninety-five percent of pancreatic cancers are adenocarcinomas which arise from uncontrolled growth of malignant cells of the exocrine pancreas, the cells of the pancreas that secrete digestive enzymes into the intestines as well as chemicals to balance out the acidity of the stomach. Rarely, pancreatic cancer can arise from the endocrine pancreas, the cells responsible for producing insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin, but these cancers are rare and frequently benign.