Antidiabetic medications use and cancer risk in type 2 diabetes

Cancer and diabetes: the interlinking metabolic pathways and repurposing actions of antidiabetic drugs

Cancers are regarded as one of the main causes of death and result in high health burden worldwide. The management of cancer include chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. The chemotherapy, which involves the use of chemical agents with cytotoxic actions is utilised as a single treatment or combined treatment. However, these managements of cancer such as chemotherapy poses some setbacks such as cytotoxicity on normal cells and the problem of anticancer drug resistance. Therefore, the use of other therapeutic agents such as antidiabetic drugs is one of the alternative interventions used in addressing some of the limitations in the use of anticancer agents. Antidiabetic drugs such as sulfonylureas, biguanides and thiazolidinediones showed beneficial and repurposing actions in the management of cancer, thus, the activities of these drugs against cancer is attributed to some of the metabolic links between the two disorders and these includes hyperglycaemia, hyperinsulinemia, inflammation, and oxidative stress as well as obesity. Furthermore, some studies showed that the use of antidiabetic drugs could serve as risk factors for the development of cancerous cells particularly pancreatic cancer. However, the beneficial role of these chemical agents overweighs their detrimental actions in cancer management. Hence, the present review indicates the metabolic links between cancer and diabetes and the mechanistic actions of antidiabetic drugs in the management of cancers.

Diabetes, Antidiabetic Medications and Cancer Risk in Type 2 Diabetes: Focus on SGLT-2 Inhibitors

In the last decade, cancer became the leading cause of death in the population under 65 in the European Union. Diabetes is also considered as a factor increasing risk of cancer incidence and mortality. Type 2 diabetes is frequently associated with being overweight and obese, which also plays a role in malignancy. Among biological mechanisms linking diabetes and obesity with cancer hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, increased levels of growth factors, steroid and peptide hormones, oxidative stress and increased activity of pro-inflammatory cytokines are listed. Antidiabetic medications can modulate cancer risk through directly impacting metabolism of cancer cells as well as indirectly through impact on risk factors of malignancy. Some of them are considered beneficial (metformin and thiazolidinedions-with the exception of bladder cancer); on the other hand, excess of exogenous insulin may be potentially harmful, while other medications seem to have neutral impact on cancer risk. Inhibitors of the sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) are increasingly used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. However, their association with cancer risk is unclear. The aim of this review was to analyze the anticancer potential of this class of drugs, as well as risks of site-specific malignancies associated with their use.