Study: Metformin protects against breast cancer metastases

The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential chemofeating effects of adding metformin to adjuvant breast cancer therapy in women without diabetes. The results indicate that the addition of metformin for adjuvant therapy has antitumor and anti-timetatic effects, which was shown either by reducing the incidence of metastases or in an extension of the duration to metastasis. The antitumoral and anti-timetatic effects of metformin can be attributed to other effects of metformin itself or on its probable effect on the reduction of the mitomarks IGF-1, IGF1: IGFBP-3, Insulin, FBG, Homa-IR-Index and the Insulin resistance IGFBP-3.

In view of what is now known about the anti -cancer advantages of metformin, 1 These results are hardly a surprise. This study illustrates a basic principle of naturopathic oncology, which is not given little attention in standard oncology. This means that instead of waiting for whether a recurrence develops after chemotherapy, we use relatively non -toxic means with the aim of extending remission.

There are other publications that show increased benefits when metformin is added to chemotherapy. One of the first to record increased benefits of metformin in chemotherapy was a retrospective study from 2009 with patients with diabetic breast cancer. The rate of complete response was 24 % in the group with metformin additive compared to 8.0 % in the group without metformin ( p = 0.02). ^{2 This current study is remarkable because the patient has no diabetes, which indicates that diabetes and increased blood sugar are no prerequisite for metformin Cancer treatment.}

While all trends indicated in this study to use metformin's use, only the ER-positive group achieved statistical significance after 6 months. The small number of participants is given as a possible reason that after 12 months there was no significant difference between the number of metastatic events in the metformin group and the control group.

Our practice in the magazine for naturopathy is to emphasize the use of natural and complementary medicines so that our primary readership, naturopathic doctors, remains informed about current research results that influence their clinical practice. The provision of information about the prescription drug metformin can appear as a deviation from this practice. After careful consideration, we decided to review two research work on metformin, since the information is of clinical relevance for many of our patients. Some would argue that metformin is not a natural medicine as a prescription drug. Others would argue that it is a synthetic imitation of chemical galega officinalis , it falls into a less defined category. The prescription of metformin now falls within the area of ​​responsibility of many of our colleagues, so that this distinction may be important. Even for those of us who cannot prescribe metformin, his new potential benefit in the prevention and treatment of cancer is still relevant, since many natural substances and lifestyle practices that we routinely prescribe patients can have similar effects on physiology.

In June 2016 there were almost 2000 articles to which PubMed (according to Mesh terms) was referred to, which refers to metformin and cancer. In this issue, two publications from 2016 will be presented. The mechanisms of action of metformin lead to a list of advantages against cancer, including the blocking of the MTOR signal path, the stimulation of the apoptosis of cancer stem cells, the inhibition of angiogenesis, the oppression of Her2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, a protein that is sometimes associated with breast cancer), the increase in the advantage of more Chemotherapy and improvement in the killing of radiation cells. There are indications that Berberin can cause some of these effects, and while this idea creates great enthusiasm among our colleagues in relation to the use of Berber in similar situations, there are far more published evidence of metformin. There is no recognizable structural similarity between metformin and berberin molecules and the two substances do not always create the same effects. Although some speak of Berber as a botanical replacement for metformin, one should be careful with such assumptions, especially when it has been shown that metformin causes something that has not yet been shown for Berber.

Jakob Schor

editor, abstracts & comment

Journal of Naturopathy