‘Huge potential’: Weight-loss drugs cut cancer risk by a fifth, study finds | Cancer

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 showed vaccines can reduce cancer by a fifth the risk of developing the disease.

Blockbuster injections such as 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 death. cardiovascular origin.

Today, experts say they increasingly believe weight-loss drugs could play an important role in preventing and treating cancer, the world’s second leading cause of death.

A study presented at the world’s largest cancer conference found that patients taking these drugs were 19% less likely to develop 13 obesity-related cancers, including ovarian, liver, colorectal, and breast cancer. pancreas, intestine and breast.

The research involving 34,000 people, conducted by Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, also found that patients were half as likely to die within 15 years as patients not taking the vaccines, also known as GLP-1 receptor (PR) agonists.

Study co-authors Dr Cindy Lin and Dr Benjamin Liu said: “Our findings are significant in that they could shift the paradigm of obesity management by suggesting that early intervention with PR GLP-1 could delay or prevent the development of obesity-related cancer. » There could be “multiple” ways that drugs reduce cancer risk – not just by helping people lose weight, they added.

A second study published at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) suggests that weight-loss drugs could reduce the risk of cancer recurrence in breast cancer patients – and improve their survival prospects after long term. Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York said vaccines could reduce the risk of cancer returning and provide a “new tool” against the disease.

A third paper published at ASCO and led by Yale University, also involving breast cancer patients, suggests that taking weight-loss drugs reduced the risk of the disease returning.

Speaking in Chicago at ASCO, Dr. Mitchell Lazar, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said: “Therapies based on GLP-1 are very effective in producing weight loss, and therefore one of the fundamental mechanisms by which they improve cancer outcomes is the impressive weight loss they produce.

“Obesity is a risk factor for almost all cancers, both in men and women. Thus, the revolution in the medical treatment of obesity has enormous potential to prevent new cancers, reduce the severity and growth rate of existing tumors, and create synergy with new cancer-specific therapies.

Dr. Jennifer Ligibel, chief medical officer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who was not involved in the studies, said: “These are exciting preliminary results on a link between GLP-1 RA use and risk. of cancer. » They added to previous work suggesting that the drugs could reduce cancer risk, she added.

A study published last December showed that they were associated with a 50% reduction in the risk of bowel cancer in people with type 2 diabetes. “People with diabetes who were prescribed a GLP -1 RA had a lower risk of colorectal cancer than people who were not prescribed one of these drugs,” 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 the result of weight loss – or if there were other unknown factors. stake.

Gralow, a world-renowned oncology expert who was named female oncologist of the year in 2023, said she is absolutely certain the injections will become a much bigger focus of cancer prevention research in the world. future. “The more we can do to reduce risk factors and prevent cancer, the better,” she added.

“I think these drugs have so many potential and already proven health benefits that it would be icing on the cake if we saw that they also reduce cancers.

“I am hopeful about overall health improvements from this class of medications. »

Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, Professor Charles Swanton, warned it was still “early days”. Some suggest the drugs might even increase the risk of certain cancers, although recent research on thyroid cancer and pancreatic cancer has cast doubt on these concerns.

“Well-designed prospective trials with randomized data will provide more clarity on the potential and safety of weight-loss drugs to reduce cancer risk,” Swanton said.