Metformin: An Emerging New Therapeutic Option for Targeting Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis

Metastasis is an intricate process by which a small number of cancer cells from the primary tumor site undergo numerous alterations, which enables them to form secondary tumors at another and often multiple sites in the host. Transition of a cancer cell from epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype is th...

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Main Authors:	Rattan, Ramandeep, Ali Fehmi, Rouba, Munkarah, Adnan
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2012
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3373168/

id	pubmed-3373168
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-33731682012-06-14 Metformin: An Emerging New Therapeutic Option for Targeting Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis Rattan, Ramandeep Ali Fehmi, Rouba Munkarah, Adnan Review Article Metastasis is an intricate process by which a small number of cancer cells from the primary tumor site undergo numerous alterations, which enables them to form secondary tumors at another and often multiple sites in the host. Transition of a cancer cell from epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype is thought to be the first step in the progression of metastasis. Recently, the recognition of cancer stem cells has added to the perplexity in understanding metastasis, as studies suggest cancer stem cells to be the originators of metastasis. All current and investigative drugs have been unable to prevent or reverse metastasis, as a result of which most metastatic cancers are incurable. A potential drug that can be considered is metformin, an oral hypoglycemic drug. In this review we discuss the potential of metformin in targeting both epithelial to mesenchymal transition and cancer stem cells in combating cancer metastases. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2012 2012-06-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3373168/ /pubmed/22701483 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/928127 Text en Copyright © 2012 Ramandeep Rattan et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Rattan, Ramandeep Ali Fehmi, Rouba Munkarah, Adnan
spellingShingle	Rattan, Ramandeep Ali Fehmi, Rouba Munkarah, Adnan Metformin: An Emerging New Therapeutic Option for Targeting Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis
author_facet	Rattan, Ramandeep Ali Fehmi, Rouba Munkarah, Adnan
author_sort	Rattan, Ramandeep
title	Metformin: An Emerging New Therapeutic Option for Targeting Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis
title_short	Metformin: An Emerging New Therapeutic Option for Targeting Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis
title_full	Metformin: An Emerging New Therapeutic Option for Targeting Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis
title_fullStr	Metformin: An Emerging New Therapeutic Option for Targeting Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis
title_full_unstemmed	Metformin: An Emerging New Therapeutic Option for Targeting Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis
title_sort	metformin: an emerging new therapeutic option for targeting cancer stem cells and metastasis
description	Metastasis is an intricate process by which a small number of cancer cells from the primary tumor site undergo numerous alterations, which enables them to form secondary tumors at another and often multiple sites in the host. Transition of a cancer cell from epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype is thought to be the first step in the progression of metastasis. Recently, the recognition of cancer stem cells has added to the perplexity in understanding metastasis, as studies suggest cancer stem cells to be the originators of metastasis. All current and investigative drugs have been unable to prevent or reverse metastasis, as a result of which most metastatic cancers are incurable. A potential drug that can be considered is metformin, an oral hypoglycemic drug. In this review we discuss the potential of metformin in targeting both epithelial to mesenchymal transition and cancer stem cells in combating cancer metastases.
publisher	Hindawi Publishing Corporation
publishDate	2012
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3373168/
_version_	1611536126356488192

Metformin: An Emerging New Therapeutic Option for Targeting Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis

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