These research findings are of important to not only veterans suffering from breast cancer but potentially against a wider variety of cancers. This research is directed at cancer stem cells, which resist chemotheray and the proposed reason for cancer recurrence. It has been suggested that if one can eliminate the cancer stem cells, then the patient's own immune system will rid the body of non-stem cell cancer cells.
In short if you can kill or prevent cancer stem cell growth, the person can beat cancer.
Researchers have shown "that low doses of metformin, a standard drug for diabetes, inhibits cellular transformation and selectively kills cancer stem cells in four genetically different types of breast cancer. The combination of metformin and a well-defined chemotherapeutic agent, doxorubicin, kills both cancer stem cells and non–stem cancer cells in culture. Furthermore, this combinatorial therapy reduces tumor mass and prevents relapse much more effectively than either drug alone in a xenograft mouse model. Mice seem to remain tumor-free for at least 2 months after combinatorial therapy with metformin and doxorubicin is ended."
Abstract: Metformin Selectively Targets Cancer Stem Cells, and Acts Together with Chemotherapy to Block Tumor Growth and Prolong Remission
[Cancer Res 2009;69(19):7507–11]
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