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A drug used to treat type 2 diabetes may also help slow the growth of prostate cancer, according to a new study.
Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, have identified shared mechanisms between diabetes and cancer.
They found that the protein PPARγ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma), which regulates metabolism, can also affect prostate cancer cell growth.
PPARγ is already targeted by drugs such as thiazolidinediones, including pioglitazone, used for managing type 2 diabetes.
“The diabetes drug pioglitazone influences PPARγ activity and inhibits tumour cell growth and metabolism,” said Emine Atas from the Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy.
She added that early findings showed prostate cancer patients with diabetes treated with PPARγ agonists had not relapsed during the study period.
Published in Molecular Cancer, the study suggests these drugs could offer a new way to treat prostate cancer. The researchers studied cell cultures and patient tissue samples to understand how different activation states of PPARγ affect cancer cells.
Prostate cancer remains the most common cancer in men. In 2020, it led to 1.4 million diagnoses and 375,000 deaths worldwide.
Despite medical advances, current treatments include surgery, radiotherapy, and medication.
The discovery of PPARγ’s role in tumour growth opens the door to more targeted therapies. Researchers now plan further studies to explore this promising treatment avenue.
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