ArticleJournal of the National Cancer Institute2018
The Effects of Metformin and Weight Loss on Biomarkers Associated With Breast Cancer Outcomes.
Article in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- Long-Term Effectiveness of Dietary Interventions on Inflammatory Biomarkers in Women with Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrition reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Fertility-sparing treatment for atypical endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial cancer.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of Dietary-Based Lifestyle Modification Approaches on Anthropometric Indices and Dietary Intake Parameters in Women with Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of Diet and Exercise-Induced Weight Loss on Biomarkers of Inflammation in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2021Pooled it
- Impact of Metformin on Cancer Biomarkers in Non-Diabetic Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2021Pooled it
- The effect of metformin on biomarkers associated with breast cancer outcomes: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and dose-response of randomized clinical trials.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2020 · on this mapPooled it
- Effects of metformin on transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles in breast cancer survivors enrolled in the randomized placebo-controlled MetBreCS trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Effect of metformin and lifestyle intervention on adipokines and hormones in breast cancer survivors: a pooled analysis from two randomized controlled trials.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2024Trial
- The effects of exercise and diet on sex steroids in breast cancer survivors.Endocrine-related cancer · 2022Trial
- The impact of metformin use on the outcomes of locally advanced breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy: an open-labelled randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Effect of a Remotely Delivered Weight Loss Intervention in Early-Stage Breast Cancer: Randomized Controlled Trial.Nutrients · 2021Trial
- A randomized controlled trial of metformin in women with components of metabolic syndrome: intervention feasibility and effects on adiposity and breast density.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2021Trial
- The Effect of Metformin vs Placebo on Sex Hormones in Canadian Cancer Trials Group MA.32.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2021Trial
- Effect of Exercise or Metformin on Biomarkers of Inflammation in Breast and Colorectal Cancer: A Randomized Trial.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2020Trial
- The Effects of a Remote-based Weight Loss Program on Adipocytokines, Metabolic Markers, and Telomere Length in Breast Cancer Survivors: the POWER-Remote Trial.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2020Trial
- Randomized trial of weight loss in primary breast cancer: Impact on body composition, circulating biomarkers and tumor characteristics.International journal of cancer · 2020Trial
- The effects of weight loss and metformin on cognition among breast cancer survivors: Evidence from the Reach for Health study.Psycho-oncology · 2019Trial
- Obesity-related Metabolic Dysfunction and Triple-negative Breast Cancer: Epidemiologic Signals, Mechanistic Pathways, and Opportunities for Prevention.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Impact of Metformin Use on Clinical and Pathological Outcomes in Breast Cancer Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Metformin for the treatment of breast cancer: a scoping review of randomized clinical trials.BMC cancer · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Background: This study investigated the effects of metformin and weight loss on biomarkers associated with breast cancer prognosis. Methods: Overweight/obese postmenopausal breast cancer survivors (n = 333) were randomly assigned to metformin vs placebo and to a weight loss intervention vs control (ie, usual care). The 2 × 2 factorial design allows a single randomized trial to investigate the effect of two factors and interactions between them. Outcomes were changes in fasting insulin, glucose, C-reactive protein (CRP), estradiol, testosterone, and sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG). The trial was powered for a main effects analysis of metformin vs placebo and weight loss vs control. All tests of statistical significance were two-sided. Results: A total of 313 women (94.0%) completed the six-month trial. High prescription adherence (ie, ≥80% of pills taken) ranged from 65.9% of participants in the metformin group to 81.3% of those in the placebo group (P < .002). Mean percent weight loss was statistically significantly higher in the weight loss group (-5.5%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -6.3% to -4.8%) compared with the control group (-2.7%, 95% CI = -3.5% to -1.9%). Statistically significant group differences (ie, percent change in metformin group minus placebo group) were -7.9% (95% CI = -15.0% to -0.8%) for insulin, -10.0% (95% CI = -18.5% to -1.5%) for estradiol, -9.5% (95% CI = -15.2% to -3.8%) for testosterone, and 7.5% (95% CI = 2.4% to 12.6%) for SHBG. Statistically significant group differences (ie, percent change in weight loss group minus placebo group) were -12.5% (95% CI = -19.6% to -5.3%) for insulin and 5.3% (95% CI = 0.2% to 10.4%) for SHBG. Conclusions: As adjuvant therapy, weight loss and metformin were found to be a safe combination strategy that modestly lowered estrogen levels and advantageously affected other biomarkers thought to be on the pathway for reducing breast cancer recurrence and mortality.
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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.