Cheap diabetes drug protects DNA: study

The most common drug to treat Type 2 diabetes might also help prevent colon cancer, suggests new research. Metformin cuts cancer rates by 40 per cent in those taking the medication, compared with diabetics who are not, but it was not known why. The theory was since cancer cells have a voracious appetite for glucose, using a drug to lower glucose levels in the blood might also block cancer. But researchers at Mcgill University and the University of Montreal made a much more important and unexpected discovery: Metformin protects cells from DNA damage that can lead to cancer by soaking up damaging reactive oxygen exhaust created by cells producing energy.