24878085
BACKGROUND	Recently it has been reported a benefit effect with the use of metformin in patients with malignant disease .
BACKGROUND	Our objective was to evaluate the effect of adding metformin to chemotherapy regimen over the percentage of early relapse in acute lymphoblastic leukemia .
METHODS	A prospective , longitudinal and experimental study was performed in patients with de novo acute lymphoblastic leukemia enrolled in the Hospital General de Mxico .
METHODS	They were divided in two groups : first group received chemotherapy + metformin ( 850 mg three times a day ) ; second group only received standard chemotherapy .
METHODS	The sample was randomized 3:1 in favor of the second group .
RESULTS	93 patients were included ( 73 treated with chemotherapy + metformin and 20 received standard chemotherapy ) , with 303 53 days of follow-up .
RESULTS	Complete remission was higher in the group without metformin ( 81.3 % [ n = 61 ] versus 70 % [ n = 14 ] ) , which also presented more patients with relapse ( 47.9 % versus 25 % ) .
RESULTS	Overall survival at one year was of 68 % and free survival disease was 64 % , without significant differences between groups .
RESULTS	Absence of metformin was the only variable of adverse prognostic considered significant ( p = 0.55 ) .
RESULTS	Cox regression showed that adding metfomin reduced 56 % the risk of relapse .
CONCLUSIONS	The adding metformin to the treatment of leukemias showed that was useful in our research .
CONCLUSIONS	However , randomized and double-blind studies must be designed in order to express final recommendations about its use .

