‘Huge potential’: weight-loss drugs reduce the risk of cancer by a fifth, research shows
Weight loss drugs offer a new weapon in the global fight against cancer, with “huge potential” to prevent new cases and shrink tumors, doctors said as research found the jabs cut the risk of developing the disease by a fifth can reduce.
Blockbuster injections like Wegovy have revolutionized the treatment of obesity and have recently been approved for use in other areas of medicine, including reducing the risk of heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths.
Now experts say they increasingly believe that weight-loss drugs could play a major role in preventing and treating cancer, the second leading cause of death worldwide.
A study presented at the world’s largest cancer conference found that patients taking the drugs were 19% less likely to develop 13 obesity-related cancers, including ovarian, liver, colorectal, pancreatic, colon and breast cancer.
The study of 34,000 people, led by Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, also found that patients were half as likely to die over 15 years as patients who did not take the jabs, also known as GLP-1 receptor agonists (RA).
The study’s co-authors, Dr. Cindy Lin and Dr. Benjamin Liu, said: “Our findings are significant because they could change the paradigm of obesity management by suggesting that early intervention with GLP-1 RAs could delay or prevent the development of obesity-related cancer. There may be “multiple” ways the drugs reduce cancer risk — not just by helping people lose weight, she added.
A second study published at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) suggested that weight-loss drugs could reduce the risk of cancer recurrence in breast cancer patients – and boost their prospects for long-term survival. Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York said the jabs could reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and provide a “new tool” against the disease.
A third paper published by ASCO and led by Yale University, which also examined breast cancer patients, suggested that taking weight-loss drugs reduced the chance of the disease returning.
Dr. Mitchell Lazar, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said in Chicago at ASCO: “GLP-1-based therapies are highly effective in inducing weight loss, and thus one of the fundamental mechanisms by which they improve cancer outcomes are the impressive weight loss they induce.
“Obesity is a risk factor for almost all forms of cancer, in both men and women. The revolution in the medical treatment of obesity thus has enormous potential to prevent new cancers, reduce the severity and growth rate of existing tumors and synergize with new cancer-specific therapies.”
Dr. Jennifer Ligibel, a senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who was not involved in the studies, said, “These are exciting, preliminary findings of a link between the use of GLP-1 RAs and cancer risk.” They added to previous work that suggested the drugs could reduce the risk of cancer, she added.
a study published last December showed that they were associated with a 50% lower risk of colon cancer in people with type 2 diabetes. “Individuals with diabetes who were prescribed a GLP-1 RA had a lower risk of colorectal cancer compared to individuals who were not prescribed either of these medications,” Ligibel said.
Dr. Julie Gralow, ASCO’s chief medical officer, said the evidence was not yet clear on whether the potential benefits of weight-loss drugs in reducing cancer risk were simply due to weight loss – or whether there were other, unknown factors. in the game.
Gralow, a world-renowned cancer expert who was named female oncologist of the year in 2023, said she was absolutely confident the jabs would become a much bigger focus of cancer prevention research in the future. “The more we can do to reduce risk factors and prevent cancer, the better,” she added.
“I really think these drugs offer so many potential and already proven health benefits that it would be the icing on the cake if we saw them also reduce cancer rates.
“I am very hopeful about the overall improvements in health from this class of drugs.”
Cancer Research UK’s chief medical officer, Prof Charles Swanton, warned it was still “the early stages”. However, there are suggestions that the drugs could even increase the risk of certain cancers recent research on thyroid cancer And pancreatic cancer has questioned these concerns.
“Well-designed prospective studies with randomized data will provide further clarity on the potential and safety of weight-loss medications to reduce cancer risk in humans,” Swanton said.