Diabetes studies offer cancer clues

June 4, 2009 – 2:31 pm by Colette Pilkus

Researchers have made a breakthrough that may increase the efficiency of vaccines and cancer treatments. They discovered that diabetes drug metformin can increase T-cell’s in the body’s immune system and since T-cells can remember pathogens they have encountered from past infections of vaccinations they can fight infections faster. Diabetes therapies are being used to alter T-cell response and enhance the immune systems response to infections and cancer.

While the link between diabetes and cancer have been previously recognized, in 2004 Canadian researches accounted for factors unavailable in previous studies. They found that obese patients with diabetes were three times more likely to get liver cancer and twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer. This reinforced the belief that biochemical reactions occurring in a diabetic patients body may give off an indirect cellular-level effect.

This study with metformin is the first that suggests that by targeting the same metabolic pathways that have a role in diabetes, scientists can change how a patient’s immune system functions. They discovered that the T-cells’ burning of fatty acids after the peak of infection is essential to building immunological memory, and since metformin is known to operate on this discovery, it was used to supplement the process. 

Tags: cancer, diabetes, metformin