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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jun 28, 2015; 7(12): 1652-1659
Published online Jun 28, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i12.1652
Published online Jun 28, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i12.1652
Systematic review: Preventive and therapeutic applications of metformin in liver disease
Aparna Bhat, Giada Sebastiani, Mamatha Bhat, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A1, Canada
Author contributions: Bhat A, Sebastiani G and Bhat M contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose related to this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Mamatha Bhat, MD, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, McGill University Health Centre, 687 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A1, Canada. mamatha.bhat@mail.mcgill.ca
Telephone: +1-514-8431616 Fax: +1-514-8431421
Received: March 13, 2015
Peer-review started: March 16, 2015
First decision: April 27, 2015
Revised: May 5, 2015
Accepted: June 4, 2015
Article in press: June 8, 2015
Published online: June 28, 2015
Peer-review started: March 16, 2015
First decision: April 27, 2015
Revised: May 5, 2015
Accepted: June 4, 2015
Article in press: June 8, 2015
Published online: June 28, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: There has recently been a growing literature on the use of metformin as a potential preventive and therapeutic agent for various chronic liver diseases and hepatic malignancies. We therefore decided to review the efficacy of metformin across the spectrum of liver disease and malignancies. Based on our systematic review, there is insufficient evidence to recommend use of metformin in the adjunctive treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatitis C. However, there is good evidence for a chemopreventive role against hepatocellular carcinoma among patients with diabetes and chronic liver disease, and metformin should be continued in patients even with cirrhosis to provide this benefit.