Metformin Combined With Gemcitabine as Adjuvant Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer After Curative Resection
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2017-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Pancreatic cancer represents the most lethal of the common malignancies with a 5-year
survival rate of less than 5%. For patients who are eligible for potentially curative
resection, despite mortality and morbidity rates after surgery have improved, the recurrence
rate is up to 85% within 2 years. Data from clinical trials indicate that adjuvant
chemotherapy enhances 5-year survival to ~25% for patients who have undergone surgery to
remove their tumor; and gemcitabine is the standard regimen of chemotherapy. Metformin is the
first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Literatures reported that metformin might
inhibit tumor growth by blocking some enzymes needed for cell growth. Some retrospective
studies have revealed that diabetic patients taking metformin were less likely to develop
pancreatic cancer. Additionally, pancreatic cancer patients treated with metformin showed a
better survival than those without metformin. In this study, the researchers intend to
investigate the activity and safety of the combination of gemcitabine and metformin in
treating patients with pancreatic cancer that have removed by surgery.