Metformin use is associated with better survival of diabetic patients with pancreatic cancer Full Text
Clinical Cancer Research, 04/04/2012
Clinical Article
Sadeghi N et al. – Metformin use was associated with improved outcome of patients with diabetes and pancreatic cancer.
Methods- We conducted a retrospective study of patients with diabetes and pancreatic cancer treated at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX).
- Information on diabetes history, including treatment modalities and clinical outcome of pancreatic cancer, was collected using personal interviews and medical record review.
- Survival analysis was carried out using a Kaplan–Meier plot, log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards regression models. Results
- Among the 302 patients identified, there were no significant differences in demographic or major clinical characteristics between the patients who had received metformin (n = 117) and those who had not (n = 185).
- The 2-year survival rate was 30.1% for the metformin group and 15.4% for the non-metformin group (P = 0.004; ?2 test).
- The median overall survival time was 15.2 months for the metformin group, and 11.1 months for the non-metformin group (P = 0.004, log-rank test).
- Metformin users had a 32% lower risk of death; the HR (95% confidence interval) was 0.68 (0.52–0.89) in a univariate model (P = 0.004), 0.64 (0.48–0.86) after adjusting for other clinical predictors (P = 0.003), and 0.62 (0.44–0.87) after excluding insulin users (P = 0.006).
- Metformin use was significantly associated with longer survival in patients with nonmetastatic disease only.
