Research

Mixed

Cumulative duration of metformin use after prostate cancer diagnosis is associated with a significant, dose-dependent reduction in prostate cancer-specific mortality among diabetic men.

If you have diabetes and prostate cancer, continuing or starting metformin appears to significantly reduce your risk of dying from prostate cancer. The benefit increases with longer use. Discuss with your doctor whether maintaining metformin therapy is appropriate for your specific cancer treatment plan.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Cumulative duration of metformin treatment after PC diagnosis was associated with a significant decreased risk of PC-specific and all-cause mortality in a dose-dependent fashion. Adjusted HR for PC-specific mortality was 0.76 (95% CI, 0.64 to 0.89) for each additional 6 months of metformin use.
David Margel et al. · Journal of Clinical Oncology · 2013

Why this rating

Observational cohort study with strong controls and sensitivity analyses, but not a randomized controlled trial.

Source

Metformin Use and All-Cause and Prostate Cancer–Specific Mortality Among Men With Diabetes

David Margel et al. · Journal of Clinical Oncology · 2013

DOI 10.1200/jco.2012.46.7043

cohort · n=3837Cited 269×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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