Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute have discovered that a common diabetes medication can slow the growth of precancerous cells in the oesophagus.
The findings published in Nature Genetics suggest that metformin could be used to manage squamous oesophageal cancer risk, and also highlight the role of metabolic conditions in accelerating the growth of potentially cancerous cells.
Approximately 9,200 new cases of oesophageal cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year and about 20% of these are squamous carcinomas.
The team, partly-funded by Cancer Research UK, used experiments in mice, cell cultures and DNA sequencing of human samples to study the evolution of mutations in the oesophagus and focused on the PIK3CA gene, which plays a major role in cell growth and can cause cells to multiply rapidly when altered.
The researchers observed that cells with these PIK3CA mutations grow faster than normal cells, and that when treated with metformin, the mutant cells lost their growth advantage, both in mice and in lab-grown cells.
They also found that a high-fat diet and type 1 diabetes in mice enhanced the growth of cells with PIK3CA mutations, and human oesophagus sample analysis showed that overweight individuals had more cells with PIK3CA mutations compared to those at a normal weight, suggesting that obesity may increase the risk of oesophageal cancer.
Senior author of the study at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Phil Jones, said: “Our findings show how a common, safe medication like metformin might be used in new ways to prevent cancers related to PIK3CA mutations.
“This discovery could offer a new tool for cancer prevention, especially in people at higher risk due to metabolic disorders.”
Repurposing existing drugs offers a promising strategy for improving cancer outcomes. Just last month, a team of researchers found that a drug currently used to treat breast cancer could help slow the growth of the rare childhood brain tumour diffuse hemispheric glioma.
Published in Cancer Cell, the research from the Institute of Cancer Research and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute showed that ribociclib could be a potential new drug to target the disease.