title: Metformin and cancer: Quo vadis et cui bono?
abstract: How many lives have already been saved by the anti-cancer drug metformin? Inadvertently perhaps, among the millions of type 2 diabetics with occult or known cancers and who have been prescribed metformin since the 1950s, thousands may have benefited from the anticancer properties of this first-line pharmacotherapy. Quo vadis? Now, researchers aim to move metformin from a non-targeted stage of cancer therapy that has been mostly developed retrospectively and empirically into a targeted therapy by following a biological rationale and a predefined mechanism of action. But, who might benefit from metformin? Cui bono? Because metformin is on the leading edge of a new generation of cancer metabolism-targeted therapies, perhaps it is the right time to provide solutions to the challenges that metformin and other onco-biguanides will face in the coming years before becoming incorporated into the therapeutic armamentarium against cancer.
authors.affiliation: Metabolism and Cancer Group, ProCURE (Program Against Cancer Therapeutic Resistance), Catalan Institute of Oncology, Girona, Catalonia, Spain.|Molecular Oncology Group, Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI), Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Menendez
authors.affiliation: Molecular Oncology Group, Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI), Girona, Catalonia, Spain.|Unit of Clinical Research, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Begoña
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Martin-Castillo
authors.affiliation: Unitat de Recerca Biomèdica, Hospital Universitari de Sant Joan, IISPV, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Campus of International Excellence Southern Catalonia, Reus, Spain.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Joven
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008687:Metformin / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D051379:Mice; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D008687:Metformin
keywords: cancer; metabolism; metformin; pharmacokinetics