+44 330 818 7254S E Oriaifo, Nicholas Oriaifo, E K I Omogbai, J Egbeifo
The epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus is unrelenting, at least, in the developing economies. A relationship has been noted between the insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome and cervical cancer; and a direct link may exist between glucose metabolism and cancer stem cells in tandem with recent reports that hyperinsulinaemia resulting from hyperglycaemia may promote carcinogenesis. Also, interference with energy metabolism may induce HPV suppression, a risk factor for cervical dysplasia and cancer. Metformin supplementation inhibited the ability of oncogenes to protect cancer cells from glucose deprivation-induced apoptosis. In this case report, metformin prevented the progression of impaired fasting plasma glucose to type 2 diabetes and arrested the progression of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia I (CIN I) in a 42-year old Nigerian female patient diagnosed with the metabolic syndrome and CIN I cervical dysplasia. Metformin’s actions may be due to its activation of AMPK and also non-AMPK based actions such as downregulation of the oncogene, c-myc, the amplification of which is detected in preinvasive intraepithelial cervical cancer. Metformin’s actions in prediabetes and CIN I deserves it being further explored.
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