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Metformin and cancer: Quo vadis et cui bono?

2016; Impact Journals LLC; Volume: 7; Issue: 34 Linguagem: Inglês

10.18632/oncotarget.10262

1949-2553

Javier A. Menéndez, Begoña Martı́n-Castillo, Jorge Joven,

Advanced Breast Cancer Therapies

// Javier A. Menendez 1,2 , Begoña Martin-Castillo 2,3,* and Jorge Joven 4 1 Metabolism and Cancer Group, ProCURE (Program Against Cancer Therapeutic Resistance), Catalan Institute of Oncology, Girona, Catalonia, Spain 2 Molecular Oncology Group, Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI), Girona, Catalonia, Spain 3 Unit of Clinical Research, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Girona, Catalonia, Spain 4 Unitat de Recerca Biomèdica, Hospital Universitari de Sant Joan, IISPV, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Campus of International Excellence Southern Catalonia, Reus, Spain * On behalf of the METTEN-01 Investigators (EudraClinicalTrial Number 2011-000490-30) Correspondence to: Javier A. Menendez, email: // Keywords : metformin; cancer; metabolism; pharmacokinetics Received : May 17, 2016 Accepted : June 03, 2016 Published : June 23, 2016 Abstract How many lives have already been saved by the anti-cancer drug metformin? Inadvertently perhaps, among the millions of type 2 diabetics with occult or known cancers and who have been prescribed metformin since the 1950s, thousands may have benefited from the anticancer properties of this first-line pharmacotherapy. Quo vadis? Now, researchers aim to move metformin from a non-targeted stage of cancer therapy that has been mostly developed retrospectively and empirically into a targeted therapy by following a biological rationale and a predefined mechanism of action. But, who might benefit from metformin? Cui bono? Because metformin is on the leading edge of a new generation of cancer metabolism-targeted therapies, perhaps it is the right time to provide solutions to the challenges that metformin and other onco-biguanides will face in the coming years before becoming incorporated into the therapeutic armamentarium against cancer.