Evidence Hub

Prognostic value of metformin for non-small cell lung cancer patients with diabetes

Xu T, Li D, He Y, Zhang F, Qiao M, Chen Y

World journal of surgical oncology, 2018

255 participants

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The anti-cancer role of metformin has been reported in many different kinds of solid tumors, but how it affects non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is currently elusive. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of metformin treatment on diabetic NSCLC.

METHODS: Two hundred fifty-five patients of diabetic NSCLC receiving therapy in our hospital from 2014 to 2016 were enrolled in our study. The information on clinical diagnosis, pathology, and prognosis as well as the influence of metformin in diabetic NSCLC were collected and assessed. Univariate and multivariate analytical techniques were applied to explore how metformin affect the survival of NSCLC.

RESULTS: One hundred fifty of the 255 diabetic NSCLC patients took metformin. The median overall survival time (OST) and disease-free survival time (DFST) were significantly prolonged with metformin treatment compared to without metformin treatment (OST 25.0 vs 11.5 months, p = 0.005; DFST 15.6 vs 8.5 months, p = 0.010). Multivariate analysis indicated that metformin treatment could be used to predict the long-term outcome of diabetic NSCLC independently (HR = 0.588, 95% CI 0.466-0.895, p = 0.035).

CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that the metformin could help in improving the final outcome of NSCLC patients with diabetes in the long term and thus could be applied to treat NSCLC.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence. Reported size: 255 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free