What science says about how weight-loss medicine have an effect on most cancers threat

“We don’t know all the good effects, but we don’t know all the bad effects either,” mentioned Sherry Shen, a medical oncologist specialising in breast most cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre.

What the newest analysis says

A big research of greater than 1.6 million folks with Type two diabetes discovered that individuals who took GLP-1s had “significant risk reduction” in 10 out of 13 obesity-associated cancers in contrast with these taking insulin, in keeping with peer-reviewed outcomes revealed in 2024 in JAMA Network Open.

Another large-scale research revealed in August 2025 checked out adults with weight problems and located that individuals taking the load loss remedy had been “significantly associated with a reduced risk of overall cancer”.

The researchers noticed that the lowered threat was significantly notable for endometrial, meningioma (which impacts the mind) and ovarian cancers. But in addition they noticed a “nonsignificant increased risk” of kidney most cancers in individuals who had been taking the medicine.

“Overall, it has a somewhat protective effect,” mentioned Jiang Bian, chief analysis info officer on the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Centre, who led the analysis staff that studied adults with weight problems.

“But if you look at individual types of a cancer or different populations, the protective or adverse effects are different.”

A overview of 48 randomided managed trials discovered that GLP-1s “may have little or no effect on risk for obesity-related cancers”, the researchers wrote in a December research revealed within the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The research targeted on thyroid, pancreatic, colorectal, gastric, esophageal, liver, gallbladder, breast, ovarian, endometrial and kidney most cancers in addition to a number of myeloma and meningioma.

But different current research recommend that GLP-1s may enhance survival amongst some folks recognized with most cancers.

Among older adults with most cancers and Type two diabetes, taking the remedy was related to decrease demise charges, in keeping with findings revealed in July 2025 in JAMA Network Open.

“That’s sort of opened a new avenue for us to explore the GLP-1 use in that special population,” mentioned Serena Guo, a professor on the College of Pharmacy at Purdue University, who was a co-author of the research.

The medicine is also useful for sufferers with colon most cancers. A research of greater than 6800 folks discovered that those that had been utilizing GLP-1s had lower than half the five-year mortality charge in contrast with non-users, in keeping with outcomes revealed in November within the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Investigation.

The findings had been constant when researchers adjusted for demographics, different diseases and the severity of the affected person’s colon most cancers analysis, mentioned Raphael Cuomo, a professor and most cancers researcher on the UC San Diego School of Medicine and the research’s writer.

He famous that individuals who had been overweight and taking GLP-1s appeared to learn “quite a lot more” with regard to lowered demise charges in contrast with sufferers who had been inside regular weight ranges.

“In this case, we’re seeing that these drugs are having a potentially pretty powerful effect,” he mentioned.

“Now, this does need to be validated in randomised trials so we can be certain about whether or not these are having anti-cancer effects or there are other mechanisms at play. But this is very promising evidence that these drugs can be very beneficial for patients with colon cancer.”

How GLP-1s may assist with most cancers

The skill of GLP-1s, which had been developed to deal with Type two diabetes, to assist folks drop extra pounds is a technique that the medicine may have advantages for most cancers, consultants mentioned. Obesity is a significant threat issue for a lot of sorts of cancers.

“There’s a myriad of ways in which obesity in general contributes to cancer risk,” Shen mentioned.

If you’re capable of modify your quantity of physique fats, often known as adipose tissue, “then theoretically you should be modifying cancer risk”.

GLP-1s is also serving to by reducing diabetes threat and decreasing irritation, which may contribute to the event of cancers, she mentioned.

Research is ongoing to higher perceive what GLP-1 medicine is likely to be doing in folks with most cancers.

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, as an example, are learning the remedy’s impact on liposarcoma, a kind of most cancers that begins in fats cells.

“This rare cancer, liposarcoma, gives us a unique opportunity to study what GLP-1 drugs do to cancer cells themselves,” mentioned Erica Pimenta, a physician-scientist who’s main analysis into whether or not the weight-loss medicines may very well be a pathway for treating liposarcoma.

Early research confirmed that when GLP-1 medicine had been administered to the tumour cells, researchers noticed hints that the cells had been “turning on or reprogramming themselves to behave more like a normal fat cell”, Pimenta mentioned. There is curiosity, she added, in seeing if this work in liposarcoma may be relevant to different cancers.

In the meantime, consultants urged folks to not rush to begin taking GLP-1 medicines with out consulting healthcare suppliers.

“The decision to start one of these is not something that should be taken lightly,” Cuomo mentioned. “These are long-term regimens, they’re expensive, and they can have side effects.”

It’s additionally necessary to remember the fact that utilizing the medication needs to be paired with wholesome way of life habits, resembling consuming nicely and staying energetic.

“These GLP-1s aren’t Band-Aids as fixes for everything,” Shen mentioned.