Survival benefit associated with metformin use in inoperable non-small cell lung cancer patients with diabetes: A population-based retrospective cohort study

Min-Chun Chuang, Yao-Hsu Yang, Ying-Huang Tsai, Meng-Jer Hsieh, Yu-Ching Lin, Chin-Kuo Lin, Pau-Chung Chen and Tsung-Ming Yang

PLOS ONE, 2018, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the effects of metformin use on the survival of inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with diabetes using the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database. Research design and methods: In total, 7,620 patients were eligible in this study, among them, 3,578 patients were metformin users and 4,042 were non-users. Propensity score matching was used to reduce possible confounding factors. In total, 4,182 patients (2,091 matched pairs) were included in the matched cohort. Cox proportional hazard model with time-dependent covariate were also applied to evaluate the association between metformin use and overall survival (OS). Results: A total of 3,578 patients were metformin users at the time of diagnosis of NSCLC. Cox proportional hazard model with time-dependent covariate revealed that metformin use was associated with a significantly longer OS (HR: 0.85, 95.0% CI: 0.80–0.90). The survival benefit of metformin use was maintained after propensity score matching at a ratio of 1:1 (HR: 0.90, 95.0% CI: 0.84–0.97). Conclusions: Metformin use is associated with longer OS in inoperable NSCLC patients with diabetes, suggesting a potential anti-tumorigenic effect for metformin. Further research is needed to investigate the actual role of metformin in the treatment of NSCLC patients with diabetes.

Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0191129

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191129

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