Metformin in Cholangiocarcinoma
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Tiah……I am a bit confused by the use of aspirin while undergoing chemotherapy and would consult with another oncologist. As far as I know, the use of aspirin during treatment is not advised.
Hugs,
MarionSo I discussed this with my mothers oncologist today prior to her chemotherapy. He said there was very little evidence regarding Metformin in any type of adenocarinoma, and he had personally done a study with some other oncologists years ago and nothing positive had come out of it. He then suggested that if there is something worth taking as an addition to the chemotherapy, low dose Aspirin (100mg daily) would have some benefit due to the COX-2 inhibition. We will likely give this a try.
Marion,
Thank you for posting the article about metforman in the gut and the development of Metformin DR which appears to not get into the blood stream as much as as such, also doesn’t potentially affect kidney function as much.
The chemo I had after surgery downgraded my kidney function. The creatinine is at 1.1-1.2…..so that’s not too bad…just slightly out of normal, but my GFR is 45-47 and as such, I was on Metforman for my type II diabetes in addition to the insulin I already have taken for years. But after taking it for two weeks, my GP ordered the blood tests and with the GFR that low, she didn’t want me to continue. We switched to Glipizide, which seems to be working on my blood sugars, but since it’s function is to cause the pancreas to kick out more insulijn, I wish there was something else. Maybe this new finding will provoke more research into better drugs that don’t exclude patients with kidney problems.
I’ll be printing out the article and taking with me to my GP and Mayo oncologist for their take on it.
Julie T.
This article caught my attention:
Strong evidence that metformin’s primary effect occurs in the gut, not the bloodstream.Thanks everyone, I am a pharmacist so I do have a great understanding of this drug, how it works (in diabetes, not CC) and the risks and side effects associated with it. I just wanted to see if any CC patients here had taken it and what oncologists had thought about the study.
The study above seems to be about met forming in CC rather than preventing it.
As for non-diabetic CC patients, I wonder if it will have any role. Metformin is used by non-diabetics in certain circumstances but I guess it may be something we may never kno
Chollangiocarcinoma and Liver cancer , as well as probably other gastrointestinal cancers sometimes make their presence known by a spontaeious blood sugar low. For a couple months before my cancer was discovered, my blood sugars lowered significantly. I didn’t think too much about it because I was also dieting and losing weight and figured that my insulin resistance (Type II diabetes) was improving with the weight drop. Howev er, then a week before my cancer was found (intrahepatic) 5 cm tumor) I had a spontaneous low…down to 43. It didn’t seem to make sense, but I planned to see a diabetes educator aboutl reconfiguring my insulin amounts.
I discussed the possibility of using Metformin with my oncologist several months ago and he said the study I found was in diabetic patients who had been using Metformin showing less occurance of CC than those who didn’t use it. However, that says nothing about whether it would make a difference after CC is diagnosed. We still talked about using Metformin and my GP did prescribe it for me, but I only took it for one week. The side effects hit me pretty hard and when my blood labs came back, my GFR was too low. due to chemo side effexts. You should not start metformin if your GFR (kidney function) is 45 or less. Mine was 47 and just not worth taking the risk of more kidney damage.
My oncologist had said that since I had had surgery to remove the tumor and essentially was currently no evidence of disease, it might be interesting to see if the Metformin would make a difference…..to conduct my own little study of one. And…because of issues with my blood sugar since chemo, we hoped the Metformin might reign in the blood sugar and drop it better. Since I had to stop the Metformin….now I’m on a different drug in addttion to my insulin and this drug works differently than Metformin.
Don’t know if that answered your questions.
Hi Tiah,
I am T2 and take metformin. 2 things.
Some places want you to cease taking it 24 hours prior to a CT scan while others don’t.
I finally decided a couple of weeks ago to see a Diabetic Educator to see if there were any conflicts between D and CC I should watch out go. She informed me metformin can cause problems and a certain blood tet has to be kept an eye on.
Sadly because she wrote an email to my GP about it I didn’t write own what it was sorry.
I’m a public patient and the hospital I go to for my chemo has a diabetes unit, I just booked an appointment with them and didn’t seem to need a referal or you could use one of the 5 free referrals but either way I would recommend seeing one as there seems to be a few things to watch out for.
Tony
tiah……I have been told that high glucose levels are associated with cholangiocarcinoma. Our search function revealed numerous postings on Metformin . Note: it includes your posting as well.
http://www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/punbb/search.php?search_id=1838345706Hi everyone,
I’ve been doing some reading today and have come across a few studies which have shown some positive signs of its use in cholangiocarcinoma.
For those who are unaware, Metformin is an antidiabetic drug which has been the gold standard in Type 2 Diabetes and is used as a first line agent. It is also very inexpensive (at least it is here in Australia: ~$10-15AUD per month). The main contraindications to its use are poor renal function.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4413646/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24788596My question is, has anyone ever had any experience or heard anything about using this while receiving treatment, such as chemotherapy, for CC?
Thanks!
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