Metformin, promising adjuvant therapy for breast cancer treatment in obese postmenopausal women
Egypt: Metformin could be a safe and promising adjuvant therapy to letrozole in overweight/obese postmenopausal women with breast cancer, a recent study in the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology has shown. The study found that metformin exerts anti-cancer activity by decreasing the circulating insulin, leptin, and estradiol.
Metformin is the first-line treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes and could be used in PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) management. Some studies have reported that patients with various cancers may therapeutically benefit from metformin. Metformin's anti-tumour activity could be linked to its negative impact on metabolism.
In this context, Aya Ahmed El-attar from Tanta University in Tanta, Egypt, and colleagues aimed to evaluate the effect of metformin as an adjuvant therapy to letrozole on estradiol and other biomarkers involved in the breast cancer pathogenesis of breast cancer among overweight and obese postmenopausal women in an open-labelled parallel pilot study.
For this purpose, the researchers assessed seventy-five female postmenopausal stages II–III breast cancer patients for eligibility. Forty-five patients met the inclusion criteria and were categorized into three arms: the lean arm comprising 15 women who received letrozole 2.5 mg/day; the metformin arm comprising 15 overweight/obese women who received letrozole 2.5 mg/day plus metformin (2000 ± 500 mg/day), and control arm comprising 15 overweight/obese women who received letrozole 2.5 mg/day. The duration of the intervention was six months. Blood samples were analyzed at baseline and six months after the intervention to measure serum estradiol, osteocalcin, leptin levels, serum insulin, and fasting blood glucose concentration.
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