Scientists from the University of Waterloo have issued an important warning for doctors who are using the diabetes drug metformin to treat cancer.
While this drug may help some cancer patients, it could also make things worse for others. This shows how important it is to match treatments to the individual patient.
Metformin has been used for many years to treat people with diabetes. It works by helping to lower blood sugar levels. In recent years, researchers started looking at metformin as a possible treatment for cancer. Some early studies showed that it might slow down how fast cancer cells grow by changing the way those cells use energy.
But this new study shows that the story isn’t that simple. Metformin doesn’t work the same way for every cancer or every person. In fact, in some types of cancer, the drug might actually help cancer cells survive. Instead of killing the cancer, it could protect the cells from stress, which allows them to keep growing. This is the opposite of what doctors want.
To better understand how metformin works, the scientists created computer models that act like human bodies. These simulations showed how the drug interacts with different types of cancer cells. Using these models, the researchers could see that in some situations, metformin was helpful, but in others, it wasn’t.
This type of computer modeling is a fast and safe way to test drugs. It allows scientists to study many different cases without needing to do risky tests on real people. It also gives doctors more information so they can make better choices about which drugs to use.
The study shows why “precision medicine” is so important. Precision medicine means giving the right treatment to the right person. It takes into account things like a person’s age, gender, genes, and other health factors. This is very different from giving the same treatment to everyone. What helps one person might hurt another.
Doctors need to be careful when giving metformin to cancer patients. It might be a great option for some people but not for others. That’s why doctors must look closely at each person’s health before making a decision.
This research, which was published in the journal BioMed Central Cancer and led by Mehrshad Sadria, is an example of how new technology is helping doctors improve cancer care. It also shows that even well-known drugs like metformin can have unexpected effects when used for something new.
In the future, with more research and better tools, doctors hope to find exactly which patients can benefit from metformin in cancer treatment. For now, the message is clear: cancer care must be personal. The same treatment will not work for everyone, and being careful can lead to better results.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about 5 vitamins that may prevent complication in diabetes, and how to manage high blood pressure and diabetes with healthy foods.
For more health information, please see recent studies about vitamin D and type2 diabetes, and to people with type 2 diabetes, some fruits are better than others.
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