Diabetes drug could cut debilitating side-effects of prostate cancer medicines, research finds

A common diabetes drug could cut the debilitating side-effects of prostate cancer medicines, pioneering research has found.

Hormone therapy – which involves taking tablets that limit the production of the male sex hormone testosterone – is one of the most common and effective prostate cancer treatments.

However, it can also cause weight gain and raise the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

But type 2 diabetes drug metformin has been shown to halve weight gain and lower blood sugar and cholesterol in patients when taken alongside the cancer treatment.

Researchers in centres across the UK examined metformin’s influence on the hormonal side-effects of more than 1,800 men.

Hormone therapy – which involves taking tablets that limit the production of the male sex hormone testosterone – is one of the most common and effective prostate cancer treatments (Stock image) 

Over seven years, the drug – the most popular treatment for type 2 diabetes in the UK – was shown to significantly improve the way bodies process energy from sugars and fats.

By helping the body use insulin more effectively and lowering blood sugar levels, metformin reduces the body’s tendency to store excess glucose as fat.

Some 55,000 UK men a year are diagnosed with prostate cancer. It kills about 12,000 patients over the same time period.

One of the most common treatments is hormone therapy, which involves blocking production of testosterone which helps prostate cancer to grow.

Hormone therapy cannot cure the disease but it can buy patients years more life or slow the growth of tumours in time for the tumours to be removed with radiotherapy or surgery.

Professor Noel Clarke, consultant urologist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, in Manchester, called the latest research a ‘landmark trial’.

‘Hormone therapies, though very effective for prostate cancer, come with unwanted side- effects which negatively impact patients’ health and quality of life,’ he said.

‘It’s great to see that a cheap and effective drug for diabetes can be used in this way.

‘I hope that this new use will be available on the NHS quickly so that more patients can benefit.’