Antitumoral effect of metformin in prostate cancer: Review

Abstract

Prostate cancer has positioned itself as the most frequent cancer in men worldwide. Recently, epidemiological reports have associated a decrease in cancer risk in patients who use metformin as treatment, a widely used first line drug in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Several studies have shown its therapeutic utility in various tumors such as hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer, gastric cancer and also prostate cancer. Many of them have focused on determining the signaling pathways by which metformin can boast antitumor effects such as, for example, the activation of activated protein kinase, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibition inhibition and insulin-like growth factor-1 inhibition, among others. Research on the subject is encouraging, accepting metformin as a good candidate to be used in prostate cancer for prevention as well as monotherapy or in combination with other chemotherapeutic drugs. The bibliography supports the concept of chemotherapy with molecular rational bases.