SynthesisInternational journal of colorectal disease2020
Relationship between metformin therapy and risk of colorectal cancer in patients with diabetes mellitus: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in International journal of colorectal disease, 2020. The graph read 1 number from its abstract, feeding 1 cell of the map, but none could be read as for or against, so it casts no vote. It also reports an association that does not count as treatment evidence, such as RR 0.88 (0.83 to 0.94) for adverse events & safety. Cited by 6 papers.
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.
Read, but not usablea number the graph found but could not read as for or against
Meta-analysis of observational studies showed that metformin treatment could significantly reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer in diabetic patients (adjusted RR = 0.884, 95%CI = 0.829-0.943), and there was heterogeneity between studies (p = 0.013, I CONCLUSIONS: Metformin therapy is associated with a significantly reduced risk of colorectal disease in patients with diabetes, and it is necessary to conduct larger, more standardized clinical studies to verify this conclusion.
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Where it lands on the map
Rows are treatments, columns are outcomes. The coloured squares are the cells this paper feeds, coloured by the vote it casts there. Click one to jump to what this paper adds to it.
What it adds to each cell
For every cell the paper feeds: the belief in the claim with and without this paper, and this paper's estimate drawn against every other readable study in the cell. The ringed dot is this paper.
Metformin×adverse events & safety
No readable resultOpen on the map →What to test next →22 readable studies in this cell: 8 favour the treatment, 8 find no difference, 6 favour the comparator.
This paper's own estimate is on a different scale from the rest of the cell, so it is not drawn here.
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
6 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Gut-Adipose-Tumor Axis in Obesity-Related Cancer.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Pharmacological mechanisms and clinical impacts of antidiabetic drugs on colorectal cancer risk: a systematic review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Metformin's role in lowering colorectal cancer risk among individuals with diabetes from the Southern Community Cohort Study.Cancer epidemiology · 2024Article
- A systematic analysis of the global and regional burden of colon and rectum cancer and the difference between early- and late-onset CRC from 1990 to 2019.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
- Metformin: A Narrative Review of Its Potential Benefits for Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer and Dementia.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Cancer: Epidemiology, Physiopathology and Prevention.Biomedicines · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The marked sentences are the ones the graph read a number from.
objectiveAt present, there are many studies on metformin and the risk of colorectal cancer in patients with diabetes, but the conclusions are contradictory. Our aim is to comprehensively collect the published literature and systematically evaluate the relationship between metformin and the risk of colorectal cancer in patients with diabetes.
methodsWe systematically searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL databases up to March 2020. We adopted adjusted estimates and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) to calculate summary effect estimates using either a fixed-effects or a random-effects model.
resultsA total of 17 articles were included in this study, with a total of 1,092,074 patients with diabetes. Meta-analysis of observational studies showed that metformin treatment could significantly reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer in diabetic patients (adjusted RR = 0.884, 95%CI = 0.829-0.943), and there was heterogeneity between studies (p = 0.013, I
conclusionsMetformin therapy is associated with a significantly reduced risk of colorectal disease in patients with diabetes, and it is necessary to conduct larger, more standardized clinical studies to verify this conclusion.
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.