Daily Med (2012-03-31) – Metformin, a widely used and well-tolerated drug used in patients with diabetes, may be effective against liver cancer, according to a study published in the American Association for Cancer Research’s Journal of Cancer Control Research. Geoffrey Gimun, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, initiated the study of metformin against liver cancer, a project with long-term effects. Yet this is the first study to evaluate liver cancer. Gimun says, “Because much of the efficacy of metformin arises in the liver, we were surprised that when we reviewed the literature in the field, there was no direct evidence of the efficacy of metformin against liver cancer, other than some epidemiological retrospective studies.” He and his colleagues used chemical methods to produce liver tumors in mice. Mice in the metformin application group showed the lowest tumor activity, while mice in the control group had rapidly growing tumors. Giumn’s team also found that metformin could also combat liver cancer by inhibiting fat synthesis in the liver, which is a known promoter of liver cancer. People with diabetes, obesity, hepatitis, or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are at high risk for liver cancer. All of these diseases are associated with abnormal fat synthesis. According to Giumn’s research, diabetics are already using metformin for their own reasons, and the mechanism of action of metformin in preventing liver cancer may also work in patients with other diseases that put them at high risk for liver cancer. Giumn is currently planning a clinical trial to determine whether the chemoprevention results observed in mice can be effective in people at high risk for liver cancer,” he says.