title: Metformin is associated with survival benefit in cancer patients with concurrent type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: Patients with type 2 diabetes have increased cancer risk and cancer-related mortality, which can be reduced by metformin treatment. However, it is unclear whether metformin can also modulate clinical outcomes in patients with cancer and concurrent type 2 diabetes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A meta-analysis of 20 publications that included 13,008 subjects was performed to investigate the association between metformin and overall survival (OS) as well as cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients with cancer and concurrent type 2 diabetes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that there was a relative survival benefit associated with metformin treatment compared with treatment with other glucose-lowering medications in both OS and CSS (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.55-0.79 and HR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.46-0.84, respectively). These associations were also observed in subgroups by cancer type and country.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that metformin is the drug of choice in the treatment of patients with cancer and concurrent type 2 diabetes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Edward J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Gorak
authors.forename: Fahd
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Quddus
mesh_terms: D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008687:Metformin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality*
chemical_list: D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D008687:Metformin
keywords: Cancer; Diabetes; Meta-Analysis; Metformin; Survival