If you pay attention to health news, you're unquestioningly aware that the rising rate of colon cancer among young people is alarming doctors. Much research points to a Western diet full of ultraprocessed foods as the catalyst behind the surge. And while this knowledge can certainly help younger generations eat better, it doesn't negate the fact that an estimated 154,270 new cases of colorectal cancer (which includes colon and rectal cancers) will be diagnosed this year, according to the American Cancer Society.
And this is precisely why a growing body of research about a possible treatment that is both affordable and easily available has the medical community so hopeful. According to one expert, the diabetes drug metformin could be a "game changer" in the fight against colon cancer.
RELATED: 50% of Colon Cancer Cases in Young People Tied to 1 Common Factor, Researchers Discover.
What is metformin?
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Metformin is an oral blood glucose-lowering drug used to treat type 2 diabetes. "Using metformin alone, with a type of oral antidiabetic medicine called a sulfonylurea, or with insulin, will help to lower blood sugar when it is too high and help restore the way you use food to make energy," explains Mayo Clinic.
Most commonly taken as a tablet, it's prescribed in the U.S. under the following brand names:
- Fortamet
- Glucophage
- Glumetza
- Riomet
According to the medical journal Diabetologia, metformin is the "most prescribed glucose-lowering medicine worldwide."
Growing research shows that metformin could help prevent and treat colorectal cancer.
Last week, the American Association for Cancer Research held its annual conference in Chicago. As Business Insider reports, scientists from The Ohio State University presented their ongoing research into how metformin interacts with colon cancer cells."
Specifically, they are studying how metformin can target a type of colon cancer caused by a difficult-to-treat mutated KRAS gene. When mutated, these genes can signal cells to multiply rapidly, causing cancer to grow and spread in the body.
Holli Loomans-Kropp, PhD, a gastrointestinal cancer prevention researcher at The Ohio State University, believes that metformin could work alongside other cancer treatments by encouraging the body's autophagy response, or "cellular recycling system," as Cleveland Clinic describes it.
"Autophagy allows your body to break down and reuse old cell parts so your cells can operate more efficiently," Cleveland Clinic explains. "It’s a natural cleaning out process that begins when your cells are stressed or deprived of nutrients."
Loomans-Kropp also hypothesizes that metformin could "inhibit colon cancer cells from using energy to grow and develop," Business Insider notes.
"If metformin maybe can be used to redirect or change how the cell uses energy, which then ultimately changes how it divides and how it proliferates, this could be a mechanism to exploit," she told the publication.
RELATED: Colon Cancer Risk Drops With This 1 Simple Snack, Groundbreaking New Study Finds.
Other studies found that metformin has "anti-tumor effects" in colorectal cancer cells.
This isn't the first time metformin has been shared as a potential treatment for colon cancer.
In a 2022 article published in the journal Current Diabetes Reviews, Moein Ala, a researcher at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, called metformin "a game changer for the management of colorectal cancer." However, Ala was only referring to research into patients who had both diabetes and colorectal cancer.
A more recent 2024 study published in the journal Cancers looked at colorectal cancers more generally. These researchers examined the "molecular mechanisms behind metformin’s anti-tumor effects in CRC [colorectal cancer risk] cells" by looking at how the drug acted on MicroRNAs (miRNAs), molecules that regulate gene expression. When they're disregulated, miRNAs could cause cancer cells to grow and proliferate.
But the researchers found that metformin used microRNAs "to act as a 'circuit breaker' and turn off certain genes that are involved in cell growth and division," lead study author Ayla Orang, PhD, a researcher in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University, told Technology Networks.
"In particular, we found that metformin increases the levels of certain microRNAs, like miR-2110 and miR-132-3p, which then target specific genes and slow down the growth and progression of tumors," she explained. "With this information we may be able to develop RNA-based therapies—new treatments for cancer that target RNA molecules (like microRNAs)."
Metformin is also low-cost.
Of course, any discovery of a potential new cancer treatment is exciting. But metformin has also been around for decades and is extremely affordable.
"Since metformin is a relatively harmless and low-cost drug, this may have a tremendous impact on other cancers," said Nilesh Vora, MD, board-certified hematologist, medical oncologist, and medical director of the MemorialCare Todd Cancer Institute at Long Beach Medical Center, in speaking with Medical News Today of the 2024 study (with which she was not involved).
Anton Bilchik, MD, PhD, surgical oncologist, chief of medicine, and director of the Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Program at Providence Saint John’s Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, echoed this sentiment to MNT: "Metformin has been available for a long time and is relatively inexpensive. There is potential for its use to be extended to other cancers, but more important, this study provides insights into the development of novel therapeutic agents."
As for its affordability, GoodRX estimates that a generic form of metformin typically costs between $10 and $30 for 60, 500 mg tablets.
RELATED: Doctor Reveals 4 Fruits That Can Lower Your Colon Cancer Risk.
What's next for metformin and colon cancer treatment?
The studies highlighted here have not yet made it to the clinical stage, meaning they are not based on research in humans. Before metformin could become available as a cancer preventative or treatment, clinical trials would need to be completed, followed by approval by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) specifically to treat cancer.
