Metformin is the drug of choice for treating type 2 diabetes. This medication was first approved by the FDA in 1994, even though it had been used in Europe since the 1950s.
A new study shows that metformin has an additional benefit besides helping control blood sugar. Canadian men with diabetes and prostate cancer were less likely to die of their cancer during the four and a half year follow-up if they were taking metformin. The longer they had taken the drug, the greater their survival benefit. Other diabetes drugs did not seem to offer such protection, so the authors conclude that the survival advantage linked to metformin is independent of its blood-sugar-lowering effect.
[Journal of Clinical Oncology, online August 5, 2013]
You can learn more about diabetes treatments in our Guide to Managing Diabetes. To learn more about prostate cancer, listen to our interview with Dr. Aaron Katz, author of The Definitive Guide to Prostate Cancer: Everything You Need to Know about Conventional and Integrative Therapies.
