ArticleMedicine2018
Metformin reduces the risk of cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes: An analysis based on the Korean National Diabetes Program Cohort.
Article in Medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Metformin: A Dual-Role Player in Cancer Treatment and Prevention: A Comprehensive Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of metformin in combination with chemotherapy in cancer patients without diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Pooled it
- Metformin and colorectal cancer: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression.International journal of colorectal disease · 2020 · on this mapPooled it
- Advancement of artificial intelligence based treatment strategy in type 2 diabetes: A critical update.Journal of pharmaceutical analysis · 2025Review
- Downregulation of the Unfolded Protein Response Links Metformin Treatment to Good Clinical Outcomes in Colorectal Cancer Patients.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Article
- Metformin modulates the unfolded protein responses, altering lifespan and health-promoting effects in UPR-activated worms.PloS one · 2025Article
- Association between diabetes and subsequent malignancy risk among older breast cancer survivors.JNCI cancer spectrum · 2024Article
- Metformin: A Dual-Role Player in Cancer Treatment and Prevention.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Article
- Drug Repurposing to Circumvent Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Resistance in Cancer Immunotherapy.Pharmaceutics · 2023Review
- Association between diabetes and cancer. Current mechanistic insights into the association and future challenges.Molecular and cellular biochemistry · 2023Review
- Mitochondria Deregulations in Cancer Offer Several Potential Targets of Therapeutic Interventions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Article
- Insulin and cancer: a tangled web.The Biochemical journal · 2022Review
- Brain Boron Level, DNA Content, and Myeloperoxidase Activity of Metformin-Treated Rats in Diabetes and Prostate Cancer Model.Biological trace element research · 2022Article
- Effects of Metformin on Hepatic Steatosis in Adults with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Diabetes: Insights from the Cellular to Patient Levels.Gut and liver · 2021Review
- New Insight into the Effects of Metformin on Diabetic Retinopathy, Aging and Cancer: Nonapoptotic Cell Death, Immunosuppression, and Effects beyond the AMPK Pathway.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Metformin treatment response is dependent on glucose growth conditions and metabolic phenotype in colorectal cancer cells.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Impact of diabetes on prognosis of gastric cancer patients performed with gastrectomy.Chinese journal of cancer research = Chung-kuo yen cheng yen chiu · 2020Article
- MAP Kinases Pathways in Gastric Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The epidemiological literature suggests that insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, and increased levels of insulin-like growth factors place patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) at greater risk of cancer. The association between cancer incidence and the use of antidiabetic medications in patients with T2DM has been recently examined. There have been conflicting reports regarding an association between metformin and cancer risk. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between metformin use and the incidence of cancer in Koreans with T2DM.Data from The Korean National Diabetes Program (KNDP, 2006-2014), a nationwide, large-scale, prospective, multicenter cohort study in Korea, were used to study patients with T2DM. Patients ≥30 years old whose complete medical records were available were included in this study. Patients with a history of any cancer on KNDP registration or those who had been diagnosed with any type of cancer within 1 year of metformin use were excluded. Survival curves with respect to the incidence of cancer were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for cancer were estimated in a Cox proportional hazards regression analysis.During a mean 5.8 years of follow-up, 164 of the 1918 study patients (335 metformin nonusers and 1583 metformin users) developed cancer. The incidence per 1000 person-years was 21.8 in metformin nonusers and 13.2 in metformin users. Metformin users had a reduced risk of cancer, even after adjustment for demographic characteristics, metabolic parameters, diabetic complications, and other antidiabetic medications (hazard ratio 0.513, 95% confidence interval 0.318-0.826, P = .0060). Subgroup analysis of metformin users showed a reduced risk of cancer in males, patients < 65 years of age, patients with a T2DM duration < 5 years, nonobese patients, nonsmokers, and good glycemic control group.This large-scale, prospective, multicenter cohort study demonstrated an association between metformin use and reduced cancer risk in patients with T2DM.
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