New breast cancer drug resistance hope

Scientists have found that a commonly used diabetes drug named Metaformin, may have the ability to reverse drug resistance in breast cancer patients.

Metaformin is widely used to treat type 2 diabetes, and when examining diabetic patients with breast cancer that the it can be seen to not only prevent or delay resistance to the chemotherapy drug Doxorubicin, but also markers associated with multiple drug resistance (MDR). This means the drug may assist in cases where resistant cancers had stopped responding to treatment.

Dr Terra Arnason, from the Universiry of Saskatchewan, Canada, explains in the journal Public Library of Science One: "Our demonstration that metformin can prevent MDR development and resensitise MDR cells to chemotherapy in vitro (in the laboratory) provides important medical relevance towards metformin's potential clinical use against MDR cancers.

She goes on to explain that "this may be the first indication of a clinical role for metformin in the long-term management of cancer, where individuals may be maintained on oral metformin to extend remission times, or prevent drug resistance from developing."