Excess weight can increase the risk of certain cancers, and researchers have wondered whether blockbuster drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic and Zepbound can play a role in cancer prevention.
Currently, a study of 170,000 patient records suggests that diabetic patients who take these common medications are slightly lower at a slightly lower risk of obesity-related cancer compared to those who took another class of diabetes medication that are not associated with weight loss.
Although this type of study cannot prove cause and effect, the findings suggest connections worth investigating. Over 12 cancers are associated with obesity.
“This calls on scientists and clinical researchers to do more work in this field to actually prove or disprove this,” said Dr. Ernest Hawk, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who was not involved in the study.
The findings will be presented by the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Thursday and will be discussed at the annual meeting in Chicago. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was led by Lucas Mablomatis, a medical student at Grossman School of Medicine at New York University.
“Chronic and chronic disease prevention is part of my passion,” said Mavromatis, a former researcher at the NIH training program.
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GLP-1 receptor agonists are injections used to treat diabetes, and some are also approved for the treatment of obesity. They work by mimicking the hormones of the gut and brain, regulating appetite and satiety. They don't work for everyone and can produce side effects including nausea and stomach pain.
In this study, researchers analyzed data from 43 US health systems and compared the two groups. Obese people who took GLP-1 medications and others who took diabetes medications like sitagliptin. The sizes of the two groups were equal and consistent with the other characteristics.
Four years later, those taking GLP-1 medications were 7% lower risk of developing obesity-related cancers and 8% lower risk of death from the cause compared to those taking other types of diabetes medications. In the GLP-1 group, there were 2,501 cases of obesity-related cancers in the GLP-1 group, compared to 2,671 cases in the other groups.
This effect was evident in women, but not statistically significant in men. Although this study could not explain the difference, Mavromatis noted that differences in blood drug concentrations, weight loss, metabolism, or hormones may be working.
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