from journal Cancer Prevention Research
An inexpensive and safe medication widely
used by people with type 2 diabetes has
shown promise as a cancer preventive.
Unexpectedly low rates of cancer were
discovered in users of metformin in 2005.
Follow‐up studies since then have shown as
much as a fifty percent reduction in risk of
cancer. The latest study, from McGill
University and the journal Cancer Prevention
Research, shows metformin reduces the
cellular mutation rate and accumulation of
DNA damage. Such mutations are directly
involved in development of cancer. Director
of the study, Dr. Michael Pollak says this opens
an exciting new direction in cancer‐prevention
research, but it doesn’t imply that metformin
is now ready to be widely used for cancer
prevention. He cautions that more study
needs to determine if metformin is effective in
people without diabetes and at what dosage.