It is well established that common drugs like Metformin and vitamin D? exhibit a strong anti-proliferative action in many cancer cell lines. Recent research confirms that this is also true in human prostate cancer cells.

In a recent study it was demonstrated that the combination of the two drugs, metformin and vitamin D3, had a much stronger positive effect on DU145 human prostate cancer cell growth than either drug alone. These two drugs showed a synergistic effect on cell proliferation and apoptosis.

Most of us do not know the genetic structure of our cancer tumor, so we do not know if we have DU145 cells present.  We do not know if metformin and vitamin D3 also effect other genetic strains of prostate cancer.  Additionally, we need to remember that it is very common that what works in a test tube doesn’t work in our bodies.  Despite these drawbacks, taking these two drugs, especially the vitamin D3 doesn’t seem to pose a very significant risk, so e could say that this finding holds a promising clinical therapeutic strategy for the treatment of androgen-independent prostate cancer.

PMID: 25903858

Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2015 Jun;42(6):711-7. doi: 10.1111/1440-1681.12409; Li HX, Gao; etal.