Metformin is associated with improved survival among patients with diabetes with stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, suggesting a potential anticancer effect…”
Conventional (FDA approved) lung cancer (LC) therapy is a funny thing. If an immunotherapy such as Keytruda or Opdivo extended survival of stage IV NSCLC patients from 3 months to five months Big Pharma would be talking about a “paradigm shift” in LC therapy. Big Pharma would be jumping for joy!
But when a non-patentable, non-conventional therapy can improve survival of LC patients by 40%? Not so much.
In addition to a substantial survival advantage, metformin is inexpensive. Keytruda and Opdivo are not. Immunotherapy regimens come with a host of potential short, long-term and late-stage side effects.
I understand that we are not talking about a silver bullet cure for LC. But as far as I can tell, an extension of survival of 66%, inexpensively with minimal collateral damage aka side effects is worth pursuing.
And don’t get me started on other evidence-based, non-toxic lung cancer therapies such as EGCG (green tea), curcumin, omega 3 fatty acids, and more. My point is that advanced LC is aggressive. Conventional oncology has little to offer the patient.
Consider Lung Cancer treatments that are evidence-based but non-conventional.
I am a long-term survivor of a different cancer that is also incurable. I have lived in complete remission using evidence-based, non-toxic therapies since 1999. To learn more about evidence-based, non-conventional lung cancer therapies please scroll down the page, post a question or a comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Thank you,
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
“Objective-To compare overall survival of patients with diabetes with stage IV NSCLC taking metformin versus those not on metformin…
Overall, 61% of patients were on metformin at the time of LC diagnosis. Median survival in the metformin group was 5 months, compared with 3 months in patients not treated with metformin…
Conclusion- Metformin is associated with improved survival among patients with diabetes with stage IV NSCLC, suggesting a potential anticancer effect…”
“Metformin is a widely used antidiabetic drug, which also displays significant growth inhibitory and proapoptotic effects in several cancer models, including lung cancer, alone or in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs…
Future prospective studies are required in NSCLC patients to better investigate the effect of metformin action on the RAS/RAF/MAPK pathway and the best context in which to use metformin in combination with molecularly targeted agents.”
Activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is an important and early event in tobacco carcinogen-induced lung tumorigenesis, and therapies that target mTOR could be effective in the prevention or treatment of lung cancer.
The biguanide metformin, which is widely prescribed for the treatment of type II diabetes, might be a good candidate for lung cancer chemoprevention because it activates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which can inhibit the mTOR pathway…
To test this, A/J mice were treated with oral metformin after exposure to the tobacco carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK). Metformin reduced lung tumor burden by up to 53% at steady-state plasma concentrations that are achievable in humans. mTOR was inhibited in lung tumors but only modestly…
