ArticleMolecular and clinical oncology2018
Effects of metformin on survival outcomes of pancreatic cancer patients with diabetes: A meta-analysis.
Article in Molecular and clinical oncology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Metformin and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.World journal of gastroenterology · 2024Pooled it
- Relationships are between metformin use and survival in pancreatic cancer patients concurrent with diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Medicine · 2020 · on this mapPooled it
- Randomized Trial of Metformin With Anti-Tuberculosis Drugs for Early Sputum Conversion in Adults With Pulmonary Tuberculosis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2022Trial
- A Phase IIa Trial of Metformin for Colorectal Cancer Risk Reduction among Individuals with History of Colorectal Adenomas and Elevated Body Mass Index.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2020Trial
- Impact of metformin use on the outcomes of newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma.British journal of haematology · 2019Trial
- Type 2 Diabetes and Gastrointestinal Cancers: Risk Associations and Awareness of Screening Challenges.Cancers · 2025Review
- Dysregulated autophagy at the nexus of type 2 diabetes mellitus and pancreatic cancer pathogenesis.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- The Impact of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Metformin on Pancreatic Cancer Chemoresistance: A Pathway towards Individualized Therapy.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Review
- Inhibition of Heme Export and/or Heme Synthesis Potentiates Metformin Anti-Proliferative Effect on Cancer Cell Lines.Cancers · 2022Article
- Insulin Resistance and Cancer: In Search for a Causal Link.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Metformin Improves Biochemical and Pathophysiological Changes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Pre-Existed Diabetes Mellitus Rats.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Cohort Study of Antihyperglycemic Medication and Pancreatic Cancer Patients Survival.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Association between Metformin Use and Clinical Outcomes Following Pancreaticoduodenectomy in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Article
- Article
- Metformin Use and Pancreatic Cancer Survival among Non-Hispanic White and African American U.S. Veterans with Diabetes Mellitus.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2020Article
- Metformin: A Possible Option in Cancer Chemotherapy.Analytical cellular pathology (Amsterdam) · 2020Review
- Central role of Yes-associated protein and WW-domain-containing transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif in pancreatic cancer development.World journal of gastroenterology · 2019Review
- Diabetes Medication Use in Association with Survival among Patients of Breast, Colorectal, Lung, or Gastric Cancer.Cancer research and treatment · 2019Article
- Pancreatic Cancer and Diabetes Mellitus.Current treatment options in gastroenterology · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pancreatic cancer risk is reduced by metformin treatment in patients with diabetes. However, the effect of metformin on pancreatic cancer overall survival is unclear. The aim of the present study was to determine the association between metformin and clinical outcomes of pancreatic cancer patients with diabetes. An electronic and manual search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, Medline-Ovid and Cochrane Library databases between the beginning and March 31, 2017. A total of 8 studies consisting of 4,293 patients with pancreatic cancer with diabetes were included, comprising 2,033 patients who had received metformin and 2,260 patients who had not. The meta-analysis showed that metformin was associated with a relative survival benefit in pancreatic cancer patients [hazard ratio (HR), 0.81; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.70-0.93]. These associations were also observed in subgroups of Asian countries 0.64 (95% CI, 0.52-0.80) and Western countries 0.88 (95% CI, 0.82-0.95), as well as diabetes (no indication of diabetes type). Excluding the studies considered as be prone to immortal time bias resulted in HRs (95% CIs) of 0.86 (0.69-1.07). The results of this study support the notion that the use of metformin may improve the overall survival of patients with pancreatic cancer with concurrent diabetes. However, the proposed beneficial effect of metformin on pancreatic cancer survival may be based on immortal time bias. Further carefully designed studies with high quality are warranted to confirm this 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.