United States: A class of diabetes and weight-loss drugs, which includes Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, could also shield individuals from multiple types of cancer, suggested new research on Friday, conjoining with the growing evidence that the injection has other numerous benefits that should have the insurance providers and public health groups that cover it despite shortages to reconsider.
More about the news
A class of drugs, Glucagon-like peptide receptor agonists, which are also called GLP-1s or GLP-1RAs, are linked with an important function of “significant risk reduction” for ten types of cancers, as per a new research study published in JAMA Oncology.
The study was conducted and analyzed health related records of 1.7 million US patients, who were prescribed with GLP-1RAs, insulins or metformin for type 2 diabetes for the past fiftenn years. Such medication helps in controlling blood sugar levels, as forbes.com reported.
The follow-up analysis was done from 2005 to 2018, although it did not specifically mention the names of the drugs they examined.
More about GLP-1 drugs
GLP-1 drugs function while imitating the function of a gut hormone, which could help in controlling blood sugar levels.
Such drugs include popular ones, which are used to control diabetes and obesity, namely, Ozempic and Wegovy, which are brands for semaglutide, Mounjaro, and Zepbound for tirzepatide, Victoza and Saxenda for liraglutide, and Trulicity or dulaglutide.
The usage of Semaglutide was approved recently, whereas tirzepatide was even approved much later than that, as forbes.com reported.
More about the findings of the study
For the study, all of the thirteen cancers which were considered, are considered as obesity-associated cancers, because the excess body fat causes the risk of development of such cases.
However, GLP-1RAs are greatly associated with lessening the risk of development of various cancers – esophageal, colorectal, endometrial, gallbladder, kidney, liver, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers, moreover meningioma and multiple myeloma, compared to patients taking insulin.
However, there is no such evidence yet that lowers the risk of obesity-associated cancer development as compared to those taking metformin for their diabetes.