Millions who take cheap, common drug could be protected from deadly type of cancer
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A cheap diabetes drug taken by millions could ward off an aggressive and deadly form of blood cancer, a study suggests.
University of Cambridge researchers found metformin, which costs the NHS just 35p per pill, helped prevent acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a blood cancer that quickly kills about four out of five patients.
Scientists first uncovered the link between the drug and anti-cancer benefits in experiments on mice, but then found the same result in humans.
While the findings still need to be confirmed in clinical trials, experts have welcomed the results as a potential low cost of way of preventing an extremely hard-to-treat cancer.
The scientists' work focused on a mutation in a gene called DNMT3A, thought to responsible for up to one in six cases of the blood cancer.
Metformin is believed to inhibit the growth of cancer cells with this faulty gene.
According to the results of their study, published in Nature, lab experiments on mice showed the drug slowed the growth of these faulty blood cells, with further tests on human tissue delivering the same result.
The researchers then examined health records of more than 400,000 people and found those taking metformin were less likely to have changes in their DNMT3A gene, which backs up their findings.
University of Cambridge researchers found metformin, which costs the NHS just 35p per pill, helped prevent acute myeloid leukaemia, a cancer that kills about four out of five patients within five years of their diagnosis, from developing
About 3,100 people are diagnosed with AML each year but only one in five patients are still alive five years after their diagnosis.
While those at increased risk of the cancer can be identified through genetic screening, there is currently no treatment to stop the disease from developing.
But scientists now hope metformin could be used for this purpose.
Professor George Vassiliou, an expert in blood health from Cambridge and an author of the latest study, said blood cancers were harder to treat than many forms of the disease as there is no solid tumour medics can surgically remove.
'Blood cancer poses unique challenges compared to solid cancers like breast or prostate, which can be surgically removed if identified early,' he said.
'With blood cancers, we need to identify people at risk and then use medical treatments to stop cancer progression throughout the body'.
Dr Rubina Ahmed, director of research at the charity Blood Cancer UK, which part-funded the work, said the study could one day unlock metformin as a low cost, easily available cancer drug which has years of safety data.
'Repurposing safe, widely available drugs like metformin means we could potentially get new treatments to people faster, without the need for lengthy drug development pipeline,' she said.
Tanya Hollands, from charity Cancer Research UK, which also part-funded the work, added that while the study was promising it still needed to be confirmed in clinical trials with real patients.
'It’s important that we work to find new ways to slow down or prevent AML in people at high risk,' she said.
'While this early-stage research is promising, clinical trials are now needed to find out if this drug could benefit people. We look forward to seeing how this work progresses.'
The researchers say they are already preparing to run clinical trials on patients identified as having changes to their DNMT3A gene that put them at increased risk of AML.
Symptoms of AML can be hard to spot as they are similar to general illness.
These include fatigue, a high temperature, repeated infection with colds and coughs, bruising and bleeding easily, breathlessness, unintended weight-loss, swelling in the lymph nodes, bone pain, stomach pain and looking pale.
Current treatment options of the disease mainly consists of chemotherapy.
The latest NHS data shows about 3.6million patients were prescribed antidiabetic drugs like metformin in 2023/24.
Separate data shows 26million metformin prescriptions were dished out in England in last year to the cost of £82million, which works out about 35p per pill.
Metformin is typically as a pill either as a standard tablet taken up to four times per day or as a stronger specially designed slow release tablet.
It works for diabetes patients by improving the way the body handles insulin helping to bring high blood sugar under control.
Daily Mail
