Ellie Kemp
A study has found that using GLP-1 drugs could reduce the rates of death in certain cancer patients.
Almost 12 percent of Americans have used the medication, as per RAND.
The injectable drugs works by mimicking the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1, which helps control blood sugar and appetite.
Wegovy, Zepbound and Saxenda are all FDA-approved prescription medications for weight loss in the United States.
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Then there's Ozempic, which belongs to the same family of drugs but isn't signed off for weight loss; instead, it's used to manage type 2 diabetes.
Now, new research from the University of California San Diego suggests these drugs can lower death rates in patients with a type of cancer surging in young people.
The cancer in question is colon cancer, a type of colorectal cancer - the latter of which is the third most common cancer in the US and the third leading cause of cancer death, as per the American Cancer Society.
There's been a consistent two percent annual increase in colorectal cancer cases among 20 to 39 year olds since the mid 1990s, with diets rich in processed food and red meat, lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle thought to be contributing to the rise.
But UC San Diego scientists found that colon cancer patients using GLP-1 medications were significantly less likely to die within five years than those who weren’t taking them.
Using data from the University of California Health Data Warehouse, some 6,871 patients were analyzed.
The five-year mortality rate was 15.5 percent for GLP-1 users compared to 37.1 percent for non-users.
Even after adjusting for factors like age, body mass index (BMI), disease severity, and other health conditions, patients taking GLP-1 drugs maintained a much lower risk of death.
However those with a BMI of more than 35 were impacted the most, indicating that GLP-1 medications might help counteract the inflammatory and metabolic issues that can worsen colon cancer outcomes.
Researchers point to several possible explanations, including that GLP-1 receptor agonists don’t just regulate blood sugar, but they also reduce inflammation, enhance insulin sensitivity and promote weight loss.
Together, these effects could weaken pathways that fuel tumor growth.
Lab studies also show that GLP-1 drugs may help stop cancer cells from growing, possibly killing them, and change the area around tumors in ways that slow the disease.
However, the study’s author, Raphael Cuomo, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Anaesthesiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a member of the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, stresses that further research is needed to confirm whether these benefits stem from a true anti-cancer effect or from the drugs’ broader impact on metabolic health.
He has issued a call for urgent clinical trials to test whether GLP-1 drugs can improve cancer survival rates, especially for patients with obesity-related cancers.
UNILAD has contacted Ozempic and Wegovy manufacturer Novo Nordisk for comment.