The Influence of Anti-Diabetic Drugs on Prostate Cancer

Abstract

The incidences of prostate cancer (PC) and diabetes are increasing, with a sustained trend. The occurrence of PC and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is growing with aging. The correlation between PC occurrence and diabetes is noteworthy, as T2DM is correlated with a reduced risk of incidence of prostate cancer. Despite this reduction, diabetes mellitus increases the mortality in many cancer types, including prostate cancer. The treatment of T2DM is based on lifestyle changes and pharmacological management. Current available drugs, except insulin, are aimed at increasing insulin secretion (sulfonylureas, incretin drugs), improving insulin sensitivity (biguanides, thiazolidinediones), or increasing urinary glucose excretion (gliflozin). Comorbidities should be taken into consideration during the treatment of T2DM. This review describes currently known information about the mechanism and impact of commonly used antidiabetic drugs on the incidence and progression of PC. Outcomes of pre-clinical studies are briefly presented and their correlations with available clinical trials have also been observed. Available reports and meta-analyses demonstrate that most anti-diabetic drugs do not increase the risk during the treatment of patients with PC. However, some reports show a potential advantage of treatment of T2DM with specific drugs. Based on clinical reports, use of metformin should be considered as a therapeutic option. Moreover, anticancer properties of metformin were augmented while combined with GLP-1 analogs.

Momordica balsamina: phytochemistry and pharmacological potential of a gifted species

“…Currently, there are several categories of antidiabetic drugs, which differ in the way they act on blood glucose level reduction, namely insulin analogues, sulphonylureas, biguanides, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, thiazolidiones, and α-glucosidase inhibitors, among others. Despite that, there is an ongoing effort to find out more effective and affordable antidiabetic drugs, with less side effects (American Diabetes Association 2020 ; Knura et al 2021 ). Taking advantage of the ethnopharmacological uses, plants have been selected for bioassay-guided isolation and identification of new lead antidiabetic compounds (Barzkar et al 2020 ; Gaonkar and Hullatti 2020 ; Fu et al 2021 ; Wasana et al 2021 ; Lee et al 2021 ; Ignat et al 2021 ; Abu-Odeh and Talib 2021 ).…”

Identification of Signature Genes and Construction of an Artificial Neural Network Model of Prostate Cancer

“…Prostate cancer (PCa) is a tumor caused by malignant hyperplasia of prostate epithelial cells. It has a very high incidence in elderly men, with 80% of cases occurring in men over 65 years old [ 1 , 2 ]. In the early stage of PCa, most patients have no obvious symptoms due to the insidious onset and slow growth of the tumor [ 3 ].…”

Pharmacological Efficacy of Repurposing Drugs in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer

“…Type 2 diabetes mellitus represents about 90% of diabetes cases and is one of the risk factors for the development of several cancers, such as liver, pancreas, colorectal, kidney, bladder, endometrium and breast cancer. In addition, diabetes is also associated with high levels of mortality in oncological situations, namely in PC, but several studies have shown that diabetes mellitus seems to reduce the risk of PC incidence, which appears to be related to the low plasma levels of Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1) in diabetic people compared to in non-diabetic people [ 20 ].…”