ArticleDiabetes care2013
Association between metformin therapy and mortality after breast cancer: a population-based study.
Article in Diabetes care, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
59 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 113 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Prognostic value of metformin in cancers: An updated meta-analysis based on 80 cohort studies.Medicine · 2022 · on this mapPooled it
- The effect of metformin on biomarkers associated with breast cancer outcomes: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and dose-response of randomized clinical trials.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2020 · on this mapPooled it
- Metformin as an adjuvant treatment for cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology · 2016Pooled it
- Metformin Use Is Associated With Better Survival of Breast Cancer Patients With Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis.The oncologist · 2015 · on this mapPooled it
- Metformin is associated with survival benefit in cancer patients with concurrent type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The oncologist · 2013 · on this mapPooled it
- Association of metformin, aspirin, and cancer incidence with mortality risk in adults with diabetes.JNCI cancer spectrum · 2023 · on this mapTrial
- Trial
- The influence of insulin-like Growth Factor-1-Receptor expression and endocrine treatment on clinical outcome of postmenopausal hormone receptor positive breast cancer patients: A Dutch TEAM substudy analysis.Molecular oncology · 2016Trial
- Recruitment strategies, design, and participant characteristics in a trial of weight-loss and metformin in breast cancer survivors.Contemporary clinical trials · 2016Trial
- Differential effects of metformin on breast cancer proliferation according to markers of insulin resistance and tumor subtype in a randomized presurgical trial.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2014Trial
- Association between low-dose aspirin use and breast cancer recurrence: a Danish nationwide cohort study with up to 23 years of follow-up.British journal of cancer · 2025Article
- Metformin and weight loss medication impact on survival outcomes in older women with obesity-related cancers.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- New evidence: Metformin unsuitable as routine adjuvant for breast cancer: a drug-target mendelian randomization analysis.BMC cancer · 2024Article
- Metformin and Glucose Concentration as Limiting Factors in Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cell Viability and Proliferation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Low-dose aspirin, statins, and metformin and survival in patients with breast cancers: a Norwegian population-based cohort study.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2023Article
- The effect of non-oncology drugs on clinical and genomic risk in early luminal breast cancer.ESMO open · 2022Article
- RETRACTED: Metformin and Breast Cancer: Where Are We Now?International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Metformin Decreases 2-HG Production through the MYC-PHGDH Pathway in Suppressing Breast Cancer Cell Proliferation.Metabolites · 2021Article
- Association of antidiabetic medication and statins with survival from ductal and lobular breast carcinoma in women with type 2 diabetes.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveMetformin has been associated with a reduction in breast cancer risk and may improve survival after cancer through direct and indirect tumor-suppressing mechanisms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of metformin therapy on survival in women with breast cancer using methods that accounted for the duration of treatment with glucose-lowering therapies. RESEARCH DESIGN AND
methodsThis population-based study, using Ontario health care databases, recruited women aged 66 years or older diagnosed with diabetes and breast cancer between 1 April 1997 and 31 March 2008. Using Cox regression analyses, we explored the association between cumulative duration of past metformin use and all-cause and breast cancer-specific mortality. We modeled cumulative duration of past metformin use as a time-varying exposure.
resultsOf 2,361 breast cancer patients identified, mean (±SD) age at cancer diagnosis was 77.4±6.3 years, and mean follow-up was 4.5±3.0 years. There were 1,101 deaths (46.6%), among which 386 (16.3%) were breast cancer-specific deaths. No significant association was found between cumulative duration of past metformin use and all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio 0.97 [95% CI 0.92-1.02]) or breast cancer-specific mortality (0.91 [0.81-1.03]) per additional year of cumulative use.
conclusionsOur findings failed to show an association between improved survival and increased cumulative metformin duration in older breast cancer patients who had recent-onset diabetes. Further research is needed to clarify this association, accounting for effects of cancer stage and BMI in younger populations or those with differing stages of diabetes as well as in nondiabetic populations.
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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.