Computer drug simulations offer warning about promising diabetes and cancer treatment

Metformin highly effective in targeting diabetes and some cancers but potentially dangerous with others. By - Using computer drug simulations, researchers have found that doctors need to be wary of prescribing a particular  treatment  for all types of cancer and patients. The drug, called metformin, has traditionally been prescribed for diabetes but has been used in clinical settings as a cancer treatment in recent years. The researchers say while metformin shows great promise, it also has negative consequences for some types of cancers. "Metformin is a wonder drug, and we are just beginning to understand all its possible benefits," said Mehrshad Sadria, a PhD candidate in applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo. "Doctors need to examine the value of the drug on a case-by-case basis, because for some cancers and some patient profiles, it may actually have the opposite of the intended effect by protecting tumour cells against stress." The computer-simulated treatments use models that replicate both the drug and the cancerous cells in a virtual environment. Such models can give clinical trials in humans a considerable head-start and can provide insights to medical practitioners that would take much longer to be discovered in the field.