Opportunities for ovarian cancer patients

US researchers at Mayo Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota claim that metformin - a drug used to treat diabetes at £ 1.3 for a day's dose - could increase the chances of survival twice. For ovarian cancer patients.

Their study, published in the journal Cancer, tracks 251 women with ovarian cancer. This includes 73 diabetic patients taking metformin daily, the rest 178 women do not take the medicine. Researchers found that drugs can slow the growth of tumors and prevent them from spreading. 67% of women taking the drug are still alive after 5 years from the day they were diagnosed, compared with 44% of the non-pill group.

Ovarian cancer is one of the most dangerous types of cancer and half of women diagnosed cannot survive beyond five years. Usually the disease is only detected when the tumor has spread to other organs and at that time there are very few effective treatments.

Dr. Viji Shridhar, the lead researcher, said that in the future the drug could be used frequently for ovarian cancer. This study opens the door to metformin use in large-scale trials and then brings new hope for ovarian cancer patients.

Reference: Daily Mail