Yoram Barak. PHOTO: ODT FILES There are plenty of negative side effects from many drugs, but researchers have been ‘‘surprised’’ to find a common drug used to treat type 2 diabetes has the beneficial ability to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. A University of Otago study of 2.25 million type 2 diabetics taking metformin over the past 10 years found it reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia. Senior author and psychological medicine researcher Associate Prof Yoram Barak said researchers expected to see a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia, but ‘‘the surprise finding’’ was the drug’s association with lower rates of prostate cancer. ‘‘Most people know it as a type 2 diabetes drug, but it actually is acting in several mechanisms that could be related to delaying ageing or reducing the rate of age-associated disorders. ‘‘The role of metformin in reducing cancer rates has been proposed prior to this project, but never in relation to prostate cancer. ‘‘So we were looking into these effects and we are the first group to show conclusively that metformin is associated with a significant reduction in prostate cancer.’’ The research also looked at the drug’s impact on several other age-associated cancers, but the findings were ‘‘inconclusive’’. He believed metformin should now be a standard part of type 2 diabetes management for males. The next step was to see if every male should be taking metformin to reduce their risk of prostate cancer. More research was needed on a large group of people who did not have type 2 diabetes, he said. ‘‘To conduct a massive trial on healthy middle-aged men without type 2 diabetes, and follow them into their old age to see if the effect held for everyone, would be unbelievably costly. ‘‘So we are hoping that our publication will encourage people in the United States to take that kind of approach.’’ Undertaking senolytic research — which focuses on developing drugs or therapies to delay, prevent, alleviate or reverse aspects of ageing — was important. This was particularly true for New Zealand because the nation was becoming an ‘‘ageing society’’, as defined by the World Health Organization. ‘‘We need to raise awareness of the need to invest in this research and the opportunities it holds to improve ageing,’’ he said. john.lewis@odt.co.nz
