News
Editorial: Old diabetic drug might help cancer patients if funding can be found for medical studies
Scott Wagar
04/10/2012
I recently read an article on CNN’s website about an oral drug that is used to treat diabetes that has some potential in becoming an anticancer drug for certain types of cancers.
The diabetic medication, Metformin, is a drug that Type II diabetics use to lower blood sugars, and which was approved by FDA in 1995 and is taken by millions of diabetics each day.
The findings of researchers that Metformin might assist in cutting the percentile of individuals who will be diagnosed with cancer has be known for sometime. When the drug was discovered, it not only reduces sugar levels for diabetics, but helped with certain types of cancer, which included breast, colon and prostate cancers.
What has brought this older medication (Metformin for diabetic purposes has been used in England since 1958) to the forefront recently is a group of Canadian researchers working in breast cancer studies discovered Metformin produced an increase activity in an enzyme that assisted in tumor suppression.
The study of using Metformin as a cancer medication is taking place at the University of Toronto, the same university where Dr. Frederick Banting discovered insulin in the winter of 1921-22 and received the Nobel Peace Prize for Medicine in 1923.
Of course, before any one can jump for joy in a medication that can be used to control cancer, studies have to be done to make sure the medication is the drug doing the job, or if it some other factor granting positive results. Presently there are a number of studies taking place on Metformin and cancer suppression, which seems to be having some positive results.
However, studies are expensive and common type drugs like Metformin seldom receive funding for such things as cancer research, slowing the study down. Governments and non-profit organizations like the National Cancer Society and the Canadian Cancer Society have started funding studies on Metformin and cancer, but obtaining money isn’t a walk in the park for them.
Metformin might be a generic drug, but generic drugs in medical history have played important roles for other illnesses, even though they were created for another disease. In recent years, Mayo Clinic started using a drug on kidney transplant patients dealing with nausea, which was a medication developed for cancer patients suffering from nausea due to cancer treatments.
If Metformin already has properties to suppress the growth of tumors in certain cancers, and is showing positive results in recent studies, I think it is fair bet that these studies should move forward, and quickly, especially considering the number of people who are suffering and losing their lives to cancer.
Hopefully, the prime players in funding medical research will jump on board with the NCS, CCS and other researchers to see if Metformin can really assist in cancer. If not, then the money will obviously then have to come from the private sector, which means that everyday people are going to have to fund the studies by granting donations.
Hopefully, the funding will come and Metformin can become that miracle drug for cancer patients in the same way it has helped millions of diabetics fight high levels of blood sugars, granting a longer and happier life.