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The expanding role of metformin in cancer: an update on antitumor mechanisms and clinical development

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Abstract

Metformin has been used for nearly a century to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus. Epidemiologic studies first identified the association between metformin and reduced risk of several cancers. The anticancer mechanisms of metformin involve both indirect or insulin-dependent pathways and direct or insulin-independent pathways. Preclinical studies have demonstrated metformin’s broad anticancer activity across a spectrum of malignancies. Prospective clinical trials involving metformin in the chemoprevention and treatment of cancer now number in the hundreds. We provide an update on the anticancer mechanisms of metformin and review the results thus far available from prospective clinical trials investigating metformin’s efficacy in cancer.

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  1. Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Jun Gong, Gauri Kelekar, James Shen, John Shen, Sukhpreet Kaur & Monica Mita

  2. Experimental Therapeutics Program, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Blvd, SCCT Mezzanine MS 35, Los Angeles, CA, 90048, USA

    Monica Mita

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Correspondence to Monica Mita.

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Jun Gong, Gauri Kelekar, James Shen, John Shen, Sukhpreet Kaur and Monica Mita declare no conflict of interest.

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Gong, J., Kelekar, G., Shen, J. et al. The expanding role of metformin in cancer: an update on antitumor mechanisms and clinical development. Targ Oncol 11, 447–467 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11523-016-0423-z

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