ArticleOncotarget2017
Therapeutic potential of the metabolic modulator phenformin in targeting the stem cell compartment in melanoma.
Article in Oncotarget, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Potential Effect of Metformin on Cancer: An Umbrella Review.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2019Pooled it
- Review
- Progress in antitumor mechanisms and applications of phenformin (Review).Oncology reports · 2024Review
- Article
- The Interplay between Tumour Microenvironment Components in Malignant Melanoma.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Review
- Review
- Mitochondrial Inhibition: a Treatment Strategy in Cancer?Current oncology reports · 2021Review
- Targeting Energy Metabolism in Cancer Stem Cells: Progress and Challenges in Leukemia and Solid Tumors.Cell stem cell · 2021Review
- Redox Homeostasis and Metabolism in Cancer: A Complex Mechanism and Potential Targeted Therapeutics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Aldehyde dehydrogenase-positive melanoma stem cells in tumorigenesis, drug resistance and anti-neoplastic immunotherapy.Molecular biology reports · 2020Review
- Phenformin as an Anticancer Agent: Challenges and Prospects.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Targeting STAT3 and oxidative phosphorylation in oncogene-addicted tumors.Redox biology · 2019Review
- Metabolism-Based Therapeutic Strategies Targeting Cancer Stem Cells.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2019Review
- Repurposed Biguanide Drugs in Glioblastoma Exert Antiproliferative Effects via the Inhibition of Intracellular Chloride Channel 1 Activity.Frontiers in oncology · 2019Review
- Mitochondria in cancer metabolism, an organelle whose time has come?Biochimica et biophysica acta. Reviews on cancer · 2018Review
- Article
- Targeted Tumor Therapy Remixed-An Update on the Use of Small-Molecule Drugs in Combination Therapies.Cancers · 2018Review
- Antidiabetic Biguanides Radiosensitize Hypoxic Colorectal Cancer Cells Through a Decrease in Oxygen Consumption.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2018Article
- Inhibition of Chloride Intracellular Channel 1 (CLIC1) as Biguanide Class-Effect to Impair Human Glioblastoma Stem Cell Viability.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2018Article
- Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer Patient-Derived Xenograft Panel with Metabolic Inhibitors Reveals Efficacy of Phenformin.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2017Article
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 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Melanoma is the most dangerous and treatment-resistant skin cancer. Tumor resistance and recurrence are due to the persistence in the patient of aggressive cells with stem cell features, the cancer stem cells (CSC). Recent evidences have shown that CSC display a distinct metabolic profile as compared to tumor bulk population: a promising anti-tumor strategy is therefore to target specific metabolic pathways driving CSC behavior. Biguanides (metformin and phenformin) are anti-diabetic drugs able to perturb cellular metabolism and displaying anti-cancer activity. However, their ability to target the CSC compartment in melanoma is not known. Here we show that phenformin, but not metformin, strongly reduces melanoma cell viability, growth and invasion in both 2D and 3D (spheroids) models. While phenformin decreases melanoma CSC markers expression and the levels of the pro-survival factor MITF, MITF overexpression fails to prevent phenformin effects. Phenformin significantly reduces cell viability in melanoma by targeting both CSC (ALDHhigh) and non-CSC cells and by significantly reducing the number of viable cells in ALDHhigh and ALDHlow-derived spheroids. Consistently, phenformin reduces melanoma cell viability and growth independently from SOX2 levels. Our results show that phenformin is able to affect both CSC and non-CSC melanoma cell viability and growth and suggests its potential use as anti-cancer therapy in melanoma.
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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.