Clinical Trial of diabetes drug for Ovarian Cancer

The University of Chicago Medicine is leading, with two other centers, a clinical trial that will compare the most effective current therapy for patients with stage 3 or stage 4 Ovarian Cancer against that same therapy plus Metformin. To enroll in the trial, volunteers must have a presumed or confirmed diagnosis of ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal carcinoma, but not diabetes.
"This is the first study of its kind in ovarian cancer," said trial director Diane Yamada, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago. "We think this is an exciting opportunity to find out if a safe, well-tested and inexpensive drug can significantly improve on our best current therapy. There is a strong biological rationale, a series of consistently encouraging results from observational studies, and a real need for better, cost-effective therapies for this type of cancer."
Studies performed at the University of Chicago and at the Mayo Clinic have independently found that ovarian cancer patients who happened to be taking metformin for their diabetes while going through cancer treatment had significantly better outcomes. In the Chicago study, 63 percent of patients taking metformin for their diabetes were alive five years later, compared with 37 percent of patients who did not have diabetes and 23 percent of patients who had diabetes but were not taking metformin.