A recent medical case study for all to read on the benefits of metformin

I am always so glad to read more information in manageable portions!  From the news on the board today I hope this timely post will help many more!  (((HUGS)))

Hi TakingControl58, following your earlier posts while we were at the gynae onco consult yesterday and I raised Metformin with him for mum to take (Stage iv UPSC, responding to platinum chemo with disease control). The doc pointed out that Metformin is beneficial only if the tumours are estrogen positive/sensitive and my mother's isn't. He concoluded therefore that the Metformin research to date isn't relevant to Mom. Based on your extensive reading, I'm wondering if this is true? Was your tumour estrogen associated? 

Sounds very hopeful.  I will keep it in mind since I amon the fence about carbo/taxol.  thanks

Endometrial/uterine cancer is such a complicated beast with so many different iterations and possible treatment options that it stands to reason that what works for some of us won't necessarily work for all. I think a lot of us who come here are very grateful to those who  put in so much time to study the research and literature that's out there and then come back to share it with the rest of us. Knowledge is power and it helps us to make informed decisions and keep our doctors on their toes. When we start this journey, I think the thing that really jumps out to all of us is how much there really is to learn as we go along and it never really stops, does it?

I'd like to add a little to what Taking control has said about metformin because there still may be a reason to take it even if you were on it prior to diagnosis and it didn't prevent your cancer. I'm out of town right now and don't have access to my research, but there was a study published about June of last year that showed that metformin can also reactivate Progesterone receptor sensitivity. This may be important if you should end up on hormone therepy post treatment like Henhill and I are. Go back to your lab results from your surgery and see if they tested your tissue for ER(estrogen receptor) & PR (progesterone receptor) sensitivity. Most of us have higher ER sensitivity than PR sensitivity, but if that PR sensitivity is there, hormone thereapy may be another tool in your oncologist's basket of tricks to keep you in remission longer than you'd otherwise be.  My ER sensity was 90% strongly positive and my PR sensitivity was also 90% positive but only weakly to moderately. The hope is that being on metformin will help the progesterone therapy I'm on to be more effective. Time will tell. Just thought I share that as something else to look into.

Metformin really is an amazing drug for cancer treatment for a number of different reasons and TakingControl is such a tireless asset to this board as she keeps sharing her expertise on the subject over and over again with new people as they find us here. I know I never would have thought to even look into it as a treatment option if it weren't for her posts.

As we always say, "Everyone is different" and that is most certainly the case with how people's body reacts to any drug given.  Sadly, you can do everything right and cancer will return or you can choose not take care of yourself and never see cancer again.  Life is a crap shoot.  I think we need to decide what is right for us.  

takingcontrol58 said:

Metformin skepticism

Tarans,

I am not saying that metformin is the only drug that put me in remission.  I believe you have to address all the root causes
that made your cancer grow, and it can be many.  Besides being on metformin, I also take 2 low dose aspirins/day- reduces chance of all
cancer by 25% (thins blood so cancer cells don't stick together and form a tumor), docycycline (antibiotic used to treat Lyme disease)-
this inexpensive antibiotic kills bacteria- many researchers believe it is bacteria and viruses that get into the cells that cause mutations,
also lost the weight I needed to lose (35lbs, plus 8 from surgery), radically changed my diet (eat almost all organic- and grass fed beef
and organic meat and fish), walk 2 miles a day, take 44 different supplements each and every day (you have to make sure you have
the proper building blocks so your body works like it should), eliminated about 95% of my sugar intake and drink only purified water. 

Metformin is only one  part of the picture. For me, it addressed some of the key factors driving my cancer, high IGF-1 and borderline
high glucose- I was prediabetic so it will keep me from getting diabetic. My A1C is 5.5. It also stops angiogenesis, so I had no need
for Avastin, a more dangerous cancer drug.

I think it may work well for me because I've also gotten rid of all the other risk factors that led me to acquire cancer.  You have to address what is making cancer grow in your body. I figure, we have alot going wrong in our bodies if we get cancer, since most people don't get cancer after all.
Perhaps you have other factors that contributed to your cancer.

The other good think about metformin is that they say you won't die from cancer if you are taking the drug.
It is also believed to stop alzheimers and heart disease.  There is a study approved to test the drug as an anti-aging drug-
the TAME study.

Be careful with taking insulin.  Insulin causes cancer and is one of the main drivers of endometrial cancer.  I had
very high levels of the hormone insulin growth factor when my cancer metastasized, along with high levels of insulin.
No more.

You have to attack cancer from many fronts. Chemotherapy and radiation don't cure metastatic endometrial cancer.
I did not have radiation, only chemo (6 infusions).  Cancer will always return if you don't address what conditions are making
it grow in your body. You need a comprehensive plan to get rid of cancer, most of which does not include cancer drugs. I finished
chemo in May 2015. The only drug I take is metformin.

MAbound, thanks for the good words.

I believe cancer can be healed today but you have to work with all that is available to you today. Some people like me,
don't have time to wait for some miracle cancer drug. I worked with what was available to me at the time it was believed
I had four to six months to live.  

Takingcontrol58

I have a cancer gene. No matter what I do, it's gonna be there.  It's true that there are likely triggers, but there hasn't been enough study of the syndrome to figure it out. 

My only comment on your regimen is that you aren't taking just a couple drugs. Those 44 supplements ARE drugs as well.  Even every day stuff can act as a drug - peppermint tea, drunk twice daily, will reduce your testosterone level significantly after a few weeks.  hence, a drug effect.  It's possible that what worked for you was simply weight loss although 38 pounds certainly didn't put you into obesity (which is where data shows increase in cancer). Still, whatever works for you.  Glad you are still here with us.

I too take aspirin, but high dosages because of Lynch Syndrome (now anyway).  They aren't actually sure how aspirin works on cancer.  Maybe it's not the blood thinning effect at all.  It is interesting work however, hopefully more will come out soon.  It does not actually reduce your risk of colon cancer UNLESS you have Lynch Syndrome, but I haven't followed anything regarding other cancers. I've been an aspirin user since my early 20s due to arthritis and sadly, it did not prevent endometrial cancer either.  Also, I and everyone else, will have to rethink aspirin as we age as data has come out about the increase in brain blood bleeds.  You feel damned if you do and damned if you don't.

My oncology group did talk about insulin and its ramifications, but they say it's hard to tease out the effects of insulin vs. obesity.  Still, my endo agrees that the less insulin I need to take, the better for me (to a point). I've recently started a LCHF diet and while that has its own issues, it will hopefully help me with some current ones.  If I was still considered a T2, I would quiz you a bit more on that, but being a T1.5 puts me into a different category because, most of the time, I'm producing inadequate insulin.

Oh, and here was an interesting cohort study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3595327/