The Weight Loss Drugs Millions Are Already Taking May Also Be Slowing Cancer

Researchers at Cleveland Clinic's Taussig Cancer Institute have presented a major new study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago showing that GLP-1 drugs, the class of medications that includes Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound, may significantly reduce the risk of certain cancers progressing to advanced stages, with patients on GLP-1 medications 38 to 50 percent less likely to develop stage IV cancer in four of the seven tumor types studied. The analysis drew on real-world health data from more than 12,000 people who had been diagnosed with an obesity-related cancer at stage one, two, or three, and compared those who began taking a GLP-1 drug after their diagnosis against those who started a different class of diabetes medication. The four cancer types that showed statistically significant reductions in metastatic progression were lung, breast, colorectal, and liver cancers, while prostate, pancreatic, and kidney cancers showed numerically fewer metastatic events but without statistical significance. The researchers also analyzed tumor data from a separate cancer genome database and found that higher GLP-1 receptor expression on tumors was associated with 33 percent lower mortality overall and 45 percent lower mortality in breast cancer specifically, suggesting the drugs may be influencing cancer biology through the tumors' own receptors.

Marcin Chwistek, a cancer expert at Fox Chase Cancer Center and ASCO specialist in supportive care, said the findings were striking precisely because of their consistency: GLP-1 drugs have never been just glucose-lowering medications, their anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating properties have long suggested broader effects, and what is new here is how consistent the signal is across tumor types with a dataset this large. The lead author, Dr. Mark David Orland, was careful to note that because the study was observational, it cannot prove that GLP-1 drugs directly slowed the cancer, but said it provides early evidence strong enough that future randomized controlled trials are absolutely worth pursuing. Researchers are now studying several possible biological mechanisms, including whether GLP-1 drugs directly suppress tumor cell growth, alter the immune system's response to cancer, reduce chronic inflammation that feeds tumor progression, or change how cancer cells access fuel. The study found no elevated safety concerns in cancer patients using GLP-1 drugs, a clinically important finding given that the drugs had previously raised questions about gastrointestinal side effects in this population that may have discouraged their use in oncology settings.

Source:https://www.themirror.com/news/health/weight-loss-drugs-preventing-cancer-1859063