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Anti-diabetes drug effective against cancer.


AN anti-diabetes drug reduced tumours faster and prolonged remission further than chemotherapy when tested on mice, apparently by targeting cancer stem cells, a new report by Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. It is a prestigious American medical school located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.  has found.

The report, published in the online journal Cancer Research, argued that the drug metformin metformin /met·for·min/ (met-for´min) an antihyperglycemic agent that potentiates the action of insulin, used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

met·for·min
n.
 may improve breast cancer survival rates.

"We have found a compound selective for cancer stem cells," said senior author Kevin Struhl, a professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. "What's different is that ours is a first-line diabetes drug."

In this study, the diabetes drug seemed to work independently of its ability to improve insulin sensitivity insulin sensitivity The systemic responsiveness to glucose, which can be measured by 1. The insulin sensitivity index–measures the ability of endogenous insulin to ↓ glucose in extracellular fluids by inhibiting glucose release from the liver and  and lower blood sugar and insulin levels, all of which are also associated with better breast cancer outcomes.

The combination of metformin and the cancer drug doxorubicin doxorubicin /doxo·ru·bi·cin/ (dok?so-roo´bi-sin) an antineoplastic antibiotic, produced by Streptomyces peucetius, which binds to DNA and inhibits nucleic acid synthesis; used as the hydrochloride salt and as a liposome-encased  killed human cancer stem cells and non-stem cancer cells cells once believed to be peculiar to cancers, but now know to be epithelial cells differing in no respect from those found elsewhere in the body, and distinguished only by peculiarity of location and grouping.

See also: Cancer
 in culture, the report said.

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Publication:Gulf Weekly
Date:Nov 8, 2009
Words:166
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