anti-diabetes drug and cancer

[al from canada]

I wonder if starch blockers would work as well.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4469409.stm

Metformin is used in europe as an anti-aging medicine.
Al

[jjfromcanada]

I have a friend who is in a trial using Metformin. Not sure where you are in Canada, but there are docs at Mt Sinai and Sunnybrook in Toronto involved in the trial. I think it is headed by Dr. Pam Goodwin at Mt Sinai. The basis for the study (I understand) is that insulin levels are higher in people who have had BC.

[Becky]

This makes a lot of sense (about insulin levels in bc patients). I do think you have to think about it in "general" terms however. If one thinks about the benign studies that just came out about exercise cutting recurrence and low fat diets cutting recurrence (and take into account that being overweight is a big risk factor). All these things increase the amounts of insulin and estrogen (both potent hormones) in the body.

Reducing both by diet and exercise (or a drug) is helpful. Then think about if one is ER/PR positive. You take Arimidex (or another AI) and reduce your chance of recurrence (let's say you are only ER/PR positive and not Her 2). However, it does not work in every case. Some people still recur. Why??? Other mechanisms are involved too - insulin? prostaglandin? (this is a huge factor in my opinion - I will explain)

Everybody makes cholestrol (whether or not you eat too much of it or saturated fat - think low fat diet here). You need cholesterol because your body converts it to the sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone and testosterone) and it also converts it to prostaglandins (they cause inflammation and pain/cramps). (This is why I think a low fat diet helps - cuts cholestrol levels hence hormone and prostaglandin levels and why I think statins improve bc rates).

Exercise helps with insulin levels and reduces body fat (that makes excess estrogens).

The role of insulin is more unclear to me because it is a humongous molecule (and smaller molecules seem to be better culprits) but insulin does have receptors on the surfaces of ALL cells (creates a "window" for glucose to enter the cell for energy).

I say you need to explore various routes at once because I think bc (and all cancers) come about from faulty mechanisms and not a faulty mechanism (there ends up being a straw that breaks the camel's back).

I am just thinking out loud here and I hope no one is angry.

Warm regards

Becky

[al from canada]

Becky,
I agree 100%
That's why I think treatment should be a multi-facetted approach....as I've said before: so the sum of the part is greater than the whole.
Regards,
Al

[Rhonda4]

I TOTALLY agree. Prior to dx I was a 4-5 candy bar a day person (when I was younger a BAG of candy a day...suprised I didn't weigh more than I did or have diabetes). SINCE dx, I have NO desire to eat candy...even sweets, do the Breast Cancer diet religiously (see www.cancerrd.com or go to prevention magazines website and type in Breast Cancer Diet), walk 2 miles per day and have lost 45lbs (15 more to get me to a "healthy" BMI). I'm getting Herceptin every 3 weeks for the next year and my feeling is that while Herceptin is stopping the protein from telling any cancer cells to grow/spread, my diet and exercise are helping my immune system say KILK, KILL.

[jessica]

I've been on Metformin (Glucophage) for a year now.
I ha d just finished a year of chemo & was NED but was gaining ~1-2lbs/week & after 4 months had gained 18lbs & was chronically exhausted!Every week I went in for my Herceptin, I mentioned it to my onc, but they didn't seem concerned at all nor could they offer an explanation (except for "are you eating more?")!Finally I pursued the help of an Endocrinologist, ultimately discovering that I am hypoglycemic AND Insulin Resistant. Incidentally, the week I found out I was Insulin Resistant, we discovered a new recurrent spot in my liver after being NED for a year.
There is a suspected link between Insulin Resistance & breast/colon cancer recurrence & they are doing clinical trials using Metformin now. It makes sense...if you're insulin resistant, then your muscles don't absorb food/blood sugar.That blood sugar stays in your system, available for those micromets that are so fond of sugar, as well as storing on your body as fat. The higher your body fat, the more estrogen production, and that's not good either.Additionally there's an insulin growth factor that they suspect may trigger tumor cells as well.
The Endo said that they suspect that Insulin Resistance may be a side effect of long term chemo, but they dont for sure. Another thing I learned is that steroids cause you to be insulin resistant, so all those doses of steroids in our premeds...Once I started on the Glucophage, I lost all the weight I'd gained within 6 months.
One last thing, cinnamon appears to increase sensitivity to insulin, so I add it to everything I eat!
Keep the Faith!

[al from canada]

If you want metformin (outside of a trial) you can get it here:
http://www.antiaging-systems.com/a2z/metformin.htm

Al

[susie]

GREAT information. We will benefit from keeping our blood sugar low by not eating sugar and taking things that will help keep it low. They give out "Lipitor" like sugar-pills to people like my brother who only has a cholestrol of 210! Come on! I told him to control his sugar and lose 10 lbs if he wants to, not just take a pill that could damage his liver. My point is that if there is a "financial incentive", you'd better believe that a drug will get on the fast-track to approval and use. Thank God we can take matters into our own hand sometimes, because if we wait on the FDA, the pharm. companies, the researchers, doctors, eventually it trickles down to us---but it's too late---we're dead.