Metformin: A Possible Option in Cancer Chemotherapy

Table 1

Clinical trials with metformin and other chemotherapeutic agents.

Cancer type	Phase	Primary outcome	Dosing regimen	Combination	Enrollment number	Clinical trial ref	Completion time
Breast cancer [43]	0	Changes in Ki67	Metformin+atorvastatin	Metformin, atorvastatin	40	NCT01980823	2021
Breast cancer [44]	II	Effects of metformin on AMPK/m/TOR pathway	Metformin 1500 mg daily for 2 weeks before surgery	Metformin monotherapy	35	NCT00930579	2014
Breast, lung, liver, kidney [45]	I	Effect of metformin+sirolimus on p70S6K	Sirolimus 3 mg daily for 1-7 days. Metformin 500 mg once daily for 8-21 days	Metformin, sirolimus	64	NCT02145559	2018
Colorectal [46]	II	Disease control rate	FOLFOX+metformin/FOLFIRI+metformin	Metformin, FOLFOX6	48	NCT01926769	2014
Prostate [47]	I	DLT assessed at 28days	Enzalutamide PO QD and metformin PO BID	Metformin, enzalutamide	24	NCT02339168	2021
Pancreas [48]	II	PFS at 12 months	Everolimus+octreotide LAR+metformin	Metformin everolimus, octreotide LAR	43	NCT02294006	2017
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia [49]	II	Time to treatment failure (assessed 3 months)	Metformin 500 mg PO QD, increased to 500 mg BID after 1week and to 1000 mg BID at week 3	Metformin monotherapy	53	NCT01750567	2020
Breast cancer, early stage [50]	III	DFS for a 10-year duration	Arm I: oral metformin HCl QD for 1-4 weeks, then BID afterwards. Treatment for 5 years; Arm II: placebo given the same way as metformin in Arm I.		3649	NCT01101438	2022

PFS: progression-free survival; RFS: relapse-free survival; DLT: dose-limiting toxicity; FOLFOX: folinic acid, fluorouracil, oxaliplatin; QD: once daily; BID: two times daily; FOLFIRI: irinotecan, folinic acid, fluorouracil.