A review of ovarian cancer outcomes has found that women with diabetes survived longer if they took metformin, Reuters Health wire service reported on Jan. 6. Further, the study showed that on progression-free survival the diabetics who used metformin did better even compared to women who didn’t have diabetes at all.

The Reuters Health report concerns research by Dr. Iris L. Romero and colleagues from the University of Chicago that was partially funded by a $25,000 grant from St. Louis Ovarian Cancer Awareness.

Dr. Romero told Reuters Health that the researchers observations add to a “growing body of evidence” from epidemiologic and preclinical studies indicating that metformin has antitumor effects.

“There is also a biologically plausible mechanism mediating metformin’s protective effect in cancer through AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase) activation and inhibition of insulin signaling,” Dr. Romero wrote.

To read the full article, go to Medscape and login in.

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Below you can read an earlier blog posting on sloca.org concerning this study, Dr. Romero and the SLOCA grant:

This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the Foundation for Women’s Cancer, formerly the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation. SLOCA has been a primary supporter of the foundation’s research and grant program for several years. Our most recent grant went to Dr. Iris Romero, a faculty member at the University of Chicago and ovarian cancer researcher.

What follows is Dr. Romero’s description of the research she is currently undertaking with the help of SLOCA’s grant:

“As a gynecologist I care for many courageous women battling ovarian cancer; witnessing their struggle motivates me to find preventive options for this insidious and devastating disease.  Based on this motivation, during my fellowship training I began a project exploring the molecular mechanisms of the protective effect of oral contraception in ovarian cancer.  Since that early project, I have expanded the program to include several other commonly used medications that may have a role in ovarian cancer prevention and/or treatment.

“Recently, there has been emerging evidence that a commonly used pill for diabetes, metformin, may protect against a number of cancers.  In my lab we have also seen a strong anti-cancer effect of the drug in ovarian cancer cells and mice.  Using funding from St. Louis Ovarian Cancer Awarness, we have been able to augment our basic science findings by completing a study evaluating if diabetes influences ovarian cancer survival and whether the use of metformin is associated with improved ovarian cancer survival.  Based on the pre-clinical evidence we hypothesized that the use of the drug would be associated with improved survival in ovarian cancer patients.   We found in our retrospective cohort from a single institution that despite receiving similar treatment for ovarian cancer, patients with type II diabetes who used metformin had increased progression-free survival, but not overall survival, when compared to patients with type II diabetes not using metformin.

“These findings add to a growing body of evidence indicating metformin may have anti-carcinogenic effects.  We are now building on the SLOCA-funded study by evaluating the impact of metformin on systemic and cellular insulin signaling in ovarian cancer both in the lab and in patient samples.  In the end, this project will have been able to integrate laboratory cancer biology techniques, mouse models of ovarian cancer and human clinical data to answer a critically important clinical question.  This integrative approach is an important step in validating metformin and the molecular pathways affected by the drug as targets for ovarian cancer prevention and treatment.  Ultimately, these findings could inform patient selection and predictive biomarkers in future clinical trials of metformin in ovarian cancer.”

SLOCA continues to be a proud supporter of this vitally important research through grants given through the Foundation for Women’s Cancer.  For further information on the foundation and its awards program, visit www.foundationforwomenscancer.org.

Dr. Romero graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor’s of Science and then attended the New Mexico Medical School where she graduated in 2001.  Following medical school Dr. Romero completed residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Utah.  To augment her general Ob/Gyn training Dr. Romero completed fellowship training in family planning at the University of Chicago.   In 2007 Dr. Romero was asked to join the faculty at University of Chicago where she now has an active ovarian cancer research lab and clinical practice.  As part of her fellowship training Dr. Romero completed a research project aimed at evaluating the molecular mechanism underlying the protective effect of oral contraception in ovarian cancer.  Since this initial project Dr. Romero has expanded her research program to evaluate several hormonal and non-hormonal approaches for both ovarian cancer prevention and treatment.  The results of these studies have been published in prestigious medical journals such as Cancer Prevention Research and Gynecologic Oncology.  Dr. Romero’s research is funded through the NIH and through several foundation grants including St. Louis Ovarian Cancer Awarness (SLOCA).  In addition to her active research lab, Dr. Romero has an active clinical practice where she sees patients with a variety of gynecological issues including women at high risk for ovarian cancer due to family history or genetic mutations.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 6th, 2011 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Ask The Doctor, In The News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.