A recent international study involving researchers at Umeå University in Sweden has discovered that a type 2 diabetes medication may help slow prostate cancer progression. The research found that drugs regulating the PPARγ protein (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma) played a key role in reducing cancer recurrence among diabetic patients with prostate cancer.

“This is a significant discovery. For the first time, we have clinical observations showing that prostate cancer patients with diabetes who received drugs targeting the protein remained relapse-free during the period we followed them,” explains Lukas Kenner, visiting professor at Umeå University and one of the study’s lead authors.

The medication in question, pioglitazone, appears to not only inhibit prostate cancer cell growth but also causes metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells, weakening their ability to grow.

The research combined cell and mouse studies with a retrospective analysis of 69 prostate cancer patients with type 2 diabetes who were followed by the Medical University of Innsbruck between 2014 and 2023.

While the findings are promising, Professor Kenner notes that additional clinical studies are needed to confirm the results and investigate whether the treatment could benefit prostate cancer patients without diabetes.

Prostate cancer remains the most common cancer-related cause of death among men in Sweden, with over 2,000 deaths annually and nearly 400,000 deaths worldwide. Despite current treatments including hormone therapy, radiation, and surgery, the risk of relapse remains relatively high.

The international research group included scientists from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. Their findings were published^[1]Atas, E., Berchtold, K., Schlederer, M. et al. The anti-diabetic PPARγ agonist Pioglitazone inhibits cell proliferation and induces metabolic reprogramming in prostate cancer. Mol Cancer 24, 134 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-025-02320-y in the scientific journal Molecular Cancer