Popular Diabetes Medication May Also Be Used for Cancer
A recent study has demonstarted that giving mice a combination of low doses of Metformin (brand name Gluophage) with a common chemotherapy medication called Doxorubicin (brand name Adriamycin) shrank breast-cancer tumors and prevented their recurrence more effectively than chemotherapy alone.
Chemotherapy is effective against many tumors, said Kevin Struhl, a Harvard Medical School researcher and principal investigator of the study. "The problem is cancer stem cells acquire resistance" to treatment, he said. "They are able to regenerate the tumor and as a result you end up with a relapse."
Researchers said the combination of metformin and doxorubicin killed both regular cancer cells and cancer stem cells. In contrast, doxorubicin alone had limited effect on the stem cells.
