Integrated Pharmacodynamic Analysis Identifies Two Metabolic Adaption Pathways to Metformin in Breast Cancer

Late-phase clinical trials investigating metformin as a cancer therapy are underway. However, there remains controversy as to the mode of action of metformin in tumors at clinical doses. We conducted a clinical study integrating measurement of markers of systemic metabolism, dynamic FDG-PET-CT, transcriptomics, and metabolomics at paired time points to profile the bioactivity of metformin in primary breast cancer. We show metformin reduces the levels of mitochondrial metabolites, activates multiple mitochondrial metabolic pathways, and increases 18-FDG flux in tumors. Two tumor groups are identified with distinct metabolic responses, an OXPHOS transcriptional response (OTR) group for which there is an increase in OXPHOS gene transcription and an FDG response group with increased 18-FDG uptake. Increase in proliferation, as measured by a validated proliferation signature, suggested that patients in the OTR group were resistant to metformin treatment. We conclude that mitochondrial response to metformin in primary breast cancer may define anti-tumor effect. [Display omitted] •A pharmacodynamic window study of metformin in patients with breast cancer•Metformin increases 18-FDG flux in primary breast cancer•Two distinct metabolic responses to metformin are identified in tumors•Tumors that upregulate OXPHOS genes show an increase in proliferation score Using dynamic PET imaging, metabolomics, and transcriptomics in breast cancer patients, Lord et al. find that metformin increases 18-FDG flux into tumors and activates mitochondrial metabolism genes. Two distinct metabolic responses are observed and linked to differing proliferation signatures, suggesting that a reactive increase in OXPHOS is linked to metformin resistance.