
Research Finds Diabetes Drugs, Diet, and Alcohol Affect Breast Cancer Prevention
Several studies looked at older diabetes drugs for possible effects on breast cancer prevention, as well as the effects of diet and alcohol use on breast cancer risk.
Xiaohe Yang, MD, PhD, an associate professor at North Carolina Central University’s Nutrition Research program, investigated an association between the type 2 diabetes (T2D) drugs, metformin and buformin, and the influence of diet on the prevention of breast cancer.
Yang had conducted earlier
Following those early results, Yang attempted to repurpose buformin, which is no longer used to treat diabetes, as another tool for cancer prevention. In one of Yang’s
“Overall, our results provide evidence for buformin as an effective anti-cancer drug that selectively targets TICs, and present a novel prevention and/or treatment strategy for patients who are genetically predisposed to erbB-2-overexpressing breast cancer,” notes Yang.
Diet can also contribute to breast cancer prevention, according to another
In a
“There is no ‘cure-all’ option that applies to all of the different types of this disease,” Yang concludes. “We hope our research will result in different drug options and strategies to successfully treat and, more importantly, prevent different types of breast cancer from even happening.”
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