Research suggests metformin may slow tumor growth.

 The Los Angeles Times (4/2, Kaplan) "Booster Shots" blog reports, "Results of a preliminary study presented...at the American Assn. for Cancer Research's annual meeting," and published in Cancer Prevention Research, "suggest metformin slowed the growth of prostate cancer tumors." Investigators looked at 22 prostate cancer patients, "all of" whom "were scheduled to have their prostates removed." The researchers found, "after the" participants' "prostates were excised...that tumors grew more slowly in men who took the diabetes drug than in men who didn't."

        HealthDay (4/1, Gardner) reported that, in a separate "study, researchers...reviewed records of 302 patients who had both diabetes and pancreatic cancer, two conditions that often go hand-in-hand," about 40% of whom were using metformin. The investigators found that approximately "30 percent of those who had taken the drug were alive after two years, compared with 15.4 percent of those who had not taken metformin." The researchers also found that "patients on metformin lived an average of just over 15 months versus about 11 months for the control group, translating into a 32 percent reduced risk of dying."