Nephroprotection and chemotherapy sensitivity impact of metformin during cisplatin therapy; an updated review

Abstract

Chemotherapy has been accepted as the most common choice for cancer treatment. However, chemotherapy-induced toxicity and chemotherapy resistance are the two challenging barriers to the treatment. Metformin is a safe, inexpensive, and the first line drug to treat type II diabetes. It has also a significant anti-tumor effect with a selective cytotoxic efficacy on cancer stem cells. It also has renoprotective efficacy. The current study contributes to incorporating metformin to chemotherapeutic agents to develop treatment efficiency and reduce the chemotherapy-induced side-effects (such as toxicity and resistance) and also to benefit the nephroprotective impact of this drug.

Keywords

• chemotherapy
• metformin
• cisplatin
• nephroprotection
• reactive oxygen species
• kidneys
• tumor
• nuclear factor (nf)-κb
• cisplatin cytotoxicity