ReviewTumour biology : the journal of the International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine2014
Repositioning metformin in cancer: genetics, drug targets, and new ways of delivery.
Review in Tumour biology : the journal of the International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of metformin on head and neck cancer: an umbrella review.BMC cancer · 2026Pooled it
- Development of metformin-encapsulated poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)-polyethylene glycol nanoparticles.Molecular biology reports · 2026Article
- Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Gene Signature Related to Prognostic in Colon Adenocarcinoma.Journal of personalized medicine · 2021Article
- How far along are we in revealing the connection between metformin and colorectal cancer?World journal of gastroenterology · 2021Review
- Identification of Core Genes Involved in the Progression of Cervical Cancer Using an Integrative mRNA Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Article
- Review
- Hypoxia: Overview on Hypoxia-Mediated Mechanisms with a Focus on the Role of HIF Genes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Review
- Molecular Links between Central Obesity and Breast Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Impact of metformin on disease control and survival in patients with head and neck cancer: a retrospective cohort study.Journal of otolaryngology - head & neck surgery = Le Journal d'oto-rhino-laryngologie et de chirurgie cervico-faciale · 2019Article
- The journey of metformin from glycaemic control to mTOR inhibition and the suppression of tumour growth.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2019Review
- Repositioning of Omarigliptin as a once-weekly intranasal Anti-parkinsonian Agent.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Fertility preservation in Hodgkin's lymphoma patients that undergo targeted molecular therapies: an important step forward from the chemotherapy era.Cancer management and research · 2018Review
- Simvastatin and metformin inhibit cell growth in hepatitis C virus infected cells via mTOR increasing PTEN and autophagy.PloS one · 2018Article
- RNA interference: new mechanistic and biochemical insights with application in oral cancer therapy.International journal of nanomedicine · 2018Review
- The p53 family orchestrates the regulation of metabolism: physiological regulation and implications for cancer therapy.British journal of cancer · 2017Review
- Metformin pharmacogenomics: a genome-wide association study to identify genetic and epigenetic biomarkers involved in metformin anticancer response using human lymphoblastoid cell lines.Human molecular genetics · 2016Article
- Article
- Diabetes Pharmacotherapies and Bladder Cancer: A Medicare Epidemiologic Study.Diabetes therapy : research, treatment and education of diabetes and related disorders · 2016Article
- Metformin: A Hopeful Promise in Aging Research.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
After sitting many years on the shelves of drug stores as a harmless antidiabetic drug, metformin comes back in the spotlight of the scientific community as a surprisingly effective antineoplastic drug. Metformin targets multiple pathways that play pivotal roles in cancer progression, impacting various cellular processes, such as proliferation, cell death, metabolism, and even the cancer stemness features. The biomolecular characteristics of tumors, such as appropriate expression of organic cation transporters or genetic alterations including p53, K-ras, LKB1, and PI3K may impact metformin's anticancer efficiency. This could indicate a need for tumor genetic profiling in order to identify patients most likely to benefit from metformin treatment. Considering that the majority of experimental models suggest that higher, supra-clinical doses of metformin should be used in order to obtain an antineoplastic effect, new ways of drug delivery could be developed, such as metformin-loaded nanoparticles or incorporation of metformin into microparticles used in transarterial chemoembolization, with the aim of obtaining higher intratumoral drug concentrations and a targeted therapy which will ultimately maximize metformin's efficacy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.