美国研究人员14日公布的研究成果表明，在化疗的同时让实验鼠服用糖尿病治疗药物二甲双胍，可抑制实验鼠体内的乳腺癌扩散。
这项研究由哈佛大学医学院研究人员完成。研究人员利用基因技术使实验鼠患上乳腺癌，并将这些实验鼠分为两组。其中一组同时接受化疗和二甲双胍治疗，对照组仅接受化疗。实验结果显示，同时接受两种治疗的实验鼠体内肿瘤缩小的速度快于对照组；两个月后，对照组实验鼠体内的乳腺癌开始复发，而同时接受两种治疗的实验鼠未出现这种情况。
研究人员表示，此前研究表明，二甲双胍可降低糖尿病患者患胰腺癌和乳腺癌的风险，而他们的新研究显示，二甲双胍似乎可以抑制乳腺癌的发展，这一发现有助于开发更有效的乳腺癌疗法。
二甲双胍是一种具有长期用药安全记录的药品，研究人员下一步将进行大规模临床试验，以验证其对人类乳腺癌的治疗效果。
这项研究成果已刊登在新一期美国《癌症研究》杂志上。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Cancer Research, 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-09-2994
Metformin Selectively Targets Cancer Stem Cells, and Acts Together with Chemotherapy to Block Tumor Growth and Prolong Remission
Heather A. Hirsch 1, Dimitrios Iliopoulos 1, Philip N. Tsichlis 2, and Kevin Struhl 1*
1Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School and 2Molecular Oncology Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
The cancer stem cell hypothesis suggests that, unlike most cancer cells within a tumor, cancer stem cells resist chemotherapeutic drugs and can regenerate the various cell types in the tumor, thereby causing relapse of the disease. Thus, drugs that selectively target cancer stem cells offer great promise for cancer treatment, particularly in combination with chemotherapy. Here, we show that low doses of metformin, a standard drug for diabetes, inhibits cellular transformation and selectively kills cancer stem cells in four genetically different types of breast cancer. The combination of metformin and a well-defined chemotherapeutic agent, doxorubicin, kills both cancer stem cells and non–stem cancer cells in culture. Furthermore, this combinatorial therapy reduces tumor mass and prevents relapse much more effectively than either drug alone in a xenograft mouse model. Mice seem to remain tumor-free for at least 2 months after combinatorial therapy with metformin and doxorubicin is ended. These results provide further evidence supporting the cancer stem cell hypothesis, and they provide a rationale and experimental basis for using the combination of metformin and chemotherapeutic drugs to improve treatment of patients with breast (and possibly other) cancers.
