Metformin, testosterone therapies lower risk for certain hormone-related cancers in men
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In a large cohort of men, pre‐diagnostic use of metformin and testosterone replacement therapy was associated with lower incidence of prostate and colorectal cancers, but not male breast cancer, according to research.
“The greatest reduced risks of prostate and colorectal cancers were observed when metformin and testosterone replacement therapy were combined,” David S. Lopez, DrPH, MPH, MS, associate professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Public and Population Health, told Healio.
Lopez and colleagues analyzed data on 143,035 men aged at least 65 years with hormone-related cancers. Data were collected from 2007 to 2015 and included in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results‐Medicare database, which links population‐based cancer registries with Medicare administrative data. Among the men, 110,430 were white, 13,520 were Black and 19,085 were another race/ethnicity. The mean age of the men was 75 years, and median follow‐up from diagnosis to death or end of study was 5.5 years.
The researchers determined pre‐diagnostic prescriptions of metformin and testosterone and conducted multivariable‐adjusted conditional logistic and Cox proportional hazards models.
Results indicated both independent and joint associations of metformin and testosterone therapy with incident prostate cancer (joint OR = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.36-0.54) and colorectal cancer (joint OR = 0.47; 95% CI, 0.34-0.64), but not male breast cancer. Researchers also observed joint associations of metformin and testosterone with hormone-related cancers (joint OR = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.38-0.54).
These hormone-related cancer associations were comparable across racial categories.
“When prostate, colorectal or male breast cancers were used to define hormone-related cancers, there was a reduced risk of hormone-related cancers in relation to the combination of metformin and testosterone replacement therapy, including high-grade and advanced-stage of hormone-related cancers. These reduced risks of hormone-related cancers remained similar among white and Black men, including men from other racial/ethnic groups (only high-grade),” Lopez said.
The researchers wrote that larger studies are needed to confirm the independent and joint association of metformin and testosterone therapy with these cancers in understudied and underserved populations.
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