ReviewJournal of cancer research and clinical oncology2016
Metformin in pancreatic cancer treatment: from clinical trials through basic research to biomarker quantification.
Review in Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 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
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Survival Benefit of Metformin Use for Pancreatic Cancer Patients Who Underwent Pancreatectomy: Results From a Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Review
- The Expendables: Overlooked Medications with Anti-Cancer Properties.Current oncology reports · 2025Review
- Repurposing Antiepileptic Drugs for Cancer: A Promising Therapeutic Strategy.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Metabolic plasticity in pancreatic cancer: The mitochondrial connection.Molecular metabolism · 2025Review
- The role of AMPK in pancreatic cancer: from carcinogenesis to treatment.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2025Review
- Emerging mechanisms and promising approaches in pancreatic cancer metabolism.Cell death & disease · 2024Review
- Mitochondrial Metabolism in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: From Mechanism-Based Perspectives to Therapy.Cancers · 2023Review
- Antitumor Therapy Targeting the Tumor Microenvironment.Journal of oncology · 2023Review
- Phenylethynylbenzyl-modified biguanides inhibit pancreatic cancer tumor growth.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Targeting Mitochondrial Complex I Overcomes Chemoresistance in High OXPHOS Pancreatic Cancer.Cell reports. Medicine · 2020Article
- Mitochondrial Metabolism in PDAC: From Better Knowledge to New Targeting Strategies.Biomedicines · 2020Review
- Overcoming cancer therapeutic bottleneck by drug repurposing.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2020Review
- Metabolism of pancreatic cancer: paving the way to better anticancer strategies.Molecular cancer · 2020Review
- Preventative and Therapeutic Effects of Metformin in Gastric Cancer: A New Contribution of an Old Friend.Cancer management and research · 2020Review
- LKB1 obliterates Snail stability and inhibits pancreatic cancer metastasis in response to metformin treatment.Cancer science · 2018Article
- Bis-Indole-Derived NR4A1 Ligands and Metformin Exhibit NR4A1-Dependent Glucose Metabolism and Uptake in C2C12 Cells.Endocrinology · 2018Article
- Metabolic Profiles Associated With Metformin Efficacy in Cancer.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2018Review
- Bioinformatory-assisted analysis of next-generation sequencing data for precision medicine in pancreatic cancer.Molecular oncology · 2017Article
- Hyperglycaemia Induced by Novel Anticancer Agents: An Undesirable Complication or a Potential Therapeutic Opportunity?Drug safety · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThree major chemotherapy strategies have emerged in the treatment of PDAC in the recent past: multiple drug combination, stroma depletion, and use of nanodrug therapy. Anti-diabetic metformin was shown to improve the outcome of a number of cancer types the first seminal report on an observational study published in 2005 and the first hospital-based case-control study on pancreatic cancer in 2009.
methodsIn this review paper, we confront the findings of a selected number of epidemiological studies and clinical trials on the use of metformin in pancreatic cancer treatment with basic knowledge and research. We particularly emphasize on the point that contradictory clinical results likely originate from heterogeneous study design due to a trial and error approach rather than an evidence-based and scientific approach. A non-rigorous selection of patients suffering from PDAC and often a poor understanding of the biological mechanism of metformin coupled with lack of scientific data has led to general statements on metformin positive or negative action, another aspect which we highlight in the review.
resultsWe here present a few pathways which in our opinion are predominant for pancreatic cancer specifically: mitochondrial activity, AMPK activation, mTOR inhibition, and decreased IGF-1R and HIF-1α expression.
conclusionWe stress on the need for a better stratification of patients and a more rigorous planning of clinical trials not only focusing on classical parameters but also on potential predictive biomarkers (AMPK, mTOR, HIF-1α, IGF-1R) and metformin dosage for positive outcome.
Indexed as
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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.