GLP-1 Drugs May Slow Cancer Progression, New Study Suggests

GLP-1 drugs may result in better outcomes for cancer patients, a new study has claimed.

While GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, are most commonly known for their weight-loss results, they were initially developed to treat type 2 diabetes.

And now, they are known to possibly slow down the spread of cancer in certain obesity-related cancers, according to the study.

Researchers used a database called the TriNetX Global Health Research Network to compare cancer patients taking GLP-1 drugs and those taking a different Type 2 diabetes medication called DPP-4 inhibitors, according to a news release issued by the American Society of Clinical Oncology Thursday.

“Our study found that use of GLP-1 drugs, compared to DPP-4 inhibitors and other antidiabetic drugs, was associated with a meaningful reduction in cancer progression across four solid tumor types,” lead study author Mark David Orland of Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute, told the press.

Researchers analyzed more than 12,000 patients with seven types of cancers at stages one to three, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer and pancreatic cancer.

Patients who took GLP-1 drugs appeared to have lower rates of metastatic progression in six of the seven cancers studied.

Patients with kidney cancer who took GLP-1 drugs were not less likely to have the cancer spread, NBC News reported, citing the study.

Researchers saw a “statistically significant” reduction in cancer spread in lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer and liver cancer.

The largest reductions in cancer spread were seen in patients with lung and breast cancer.

Lung cancer patients taking GLP-1 drugs were 50 percent less likely to progress to stage four and breast cancer patients taking the medications were 43 percent less likely, according to NBC News.

The study comes as GLP-1s rise in popularity.

One in eight U.S. adults said they are taking a GLP-1 drug for weight loss, diabetes or another chronic condition, according to a poll released by health policy organization KFF last November.

Nearly one in five adults said they have taken a GLP-1 drug at some point.

The new study was observational, meaning the results cannot prove that GLP-1 drugs directly slow down the spread of cancer.

But Orland said it “provides early evidence that future studies are worth pursuing.”