Antitumoral Effects of Metformin in Ovarian Cancer

In the last years, the antidiabetic drug metformin has received considerable attention in pursuing new drugs for anticancer treatments. Several reports have shown that metformin would have antitumor effects, not only attributable to its systemic effects but also due to direct effects on tumor cells. It has been proposed that metformin could be a suitable alternative for the treatment of gynecological cancers, such as ovarian cancer. This disease is characterized by high cell proliferation and angiogenesis potential, because ovarian cancer cells overexpress most oncogenic molecules including growth factors. The aim of the present chapter is to discuss the molecular mechanism by which metformin would affect tumor cells, with focus on epithelial ovarian cancer.