ArticleBritish journal of cancer2012
Phenformin as prophylaxis and therapy in breast cancer xenografts.
Article in British journal of cancer, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 105 citations in OpenAlex.
- Tumour hypoxia in clinical oncology: imaging, therapeutic strategies, and translational challenges.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2027Review
- Mitochondrial Redox Vulnerabilities in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Integrative Perspectives and Emerging Therapeutic Strategies.Metabolites · 2026Review
- Re/Journal of medicinal chemistry · 2025Article
- Heterogeneous protein dynamics links to mitochondrial activity, glucose transporter, and ALDH cancer stem cell properties.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Prolonged Low-Dose Administration of FDA-Approved Drugs for Non-Cancer Conditions: A Review of Potential Targets in Cancer Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Progress in antitumor mechanisms and applications of phenformin (Review).Oncology reports · 2024Review
- Oral intake of bucillamine, carvedilol, metformin, or phenformin does not protect against UVR-induced squamous cell carcinomas in hairless mice.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2024Article
- Metformin is associated with improved clinical outcomes in patients with melanoma: a retrospective, multi-institutional study.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
- Review
- Biological Properties of Transition Metal Complexes with Metformin and Its Analogues.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Effects of metabolic cancer therapy on tumor microenvironment.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Review
- Breast Cancer Cell Subtypes Display Different Metabolic Phenotypes That Correlate with Their Clinical Classification.Biology · 2021Article
- Targeting Hypoxia: Revival of Old Remedies.Biomolecules · 2021Review
- Mitochondrial Inhibition: a Treatment Strategy in Cancer?Current oncology reports · 2021Review
- Targeting Cancer Metabolism and Current Anti-Cancer Drugs.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2021Review
- The disubstituted adamantyl derivative LW1564 inhibits the growth of cancer cells by targeting mitochondrial respiration and reducing hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α accumulation.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2020Article
- Phosphorylation of PDHA by AMPK Drives TCA Cycle to Promote Cancer Metastasis.Molecular cell · 2020Article
- mTOR-mediated cancer drug resistance suppresses autophagy and generates a druggable metabolic vulnerability.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Phenformin inhibits proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis of cholangiocarcinoma cells via AMPK-mTOR and HIF-1A pathways.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2020Article
- Repression of LKB1 byCell reports. Medicine · 2020Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundObservations that diabetics treated with biguanide drugs have a reduced risk of developing cancer have prompted an enthusiasm for these agents as anti-cancer therapies. We sought to determine the efficacy of the biguanide phenformin in the chemoprophylaxis and in the treatment of oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive MCF7 and receptor triple-negative MDAMB231 xenografts in immunocompromised mice. We also compared the efficacy of phenformin and metformin in the treatment of MDAMB231.
methodsImmunocompromised mice were divided into groups: (1) phenformin administered for 2 weeks prior to cell injection; (2) established tumours treated with phenformin; (3) established tumours treated with metformin (only for MDAMB231 tumours); (4) untreated controls. Post-treatment tumours, liver and spleen were harvested for further analysis.
resultsPhenformin significantly inhibited both the development and growth of MCF7 and MDAMB231 tumours, and for MDAMB231 at greater efficacy than metformin without murine toxicity. The number of mitotic figures was significantly fewer in xenografts treated with phenformin compared with controls. Results suggested that the mechanism of action of phenformin in vivo is consistent with AMPK activation.
conclusionPhenformin has clinical potential as an antineoplastic agent and should be considered for clinical trials both in ER-positive and triple-negative breast cancer.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.