New research suggests that popular weight-loss and diabetes medications like Ozempic and Wegovy may also help protect people from colon cancer.
These findings were presented at a recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco.
The drugs belong to a group known as GLP-1 receptor agonists. They mimic a natural hormone in the body called GLP-1, which helps control blood sugar, reduce appetite, and slow digestion.
Some of the best-known drugs in this group include semaglutide (sold as Ozempic and Wegovy), liraglutide, dulaglutide, and tirzepatide (sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound).
In this new study, researchers looked at the health records of over 281,000 people. Half of them were taking a GLP-1 drug, and the other half were taking aspirin. Aspirin has long been studied for its possible ability to prevent colon cancer, but it can also cause side effects like bleeding in the stomach and intestines.
The researchers followed people on GLP-1 drugs for about six years and those on aspirin for about five years. They found that people taking a GLP-1 drug were 36% less likely to develop colon cancer than those taking aspirin. The benefits were even bigger—about 42% lower risk—for people with a family or personal history that put them at higher risk of the disease.
GLP-1 users also experienced fewer serious side effects, such as kidney damage, ulcers, or internal bleeding, compared to those on aspirin. However, people on GLP-1 drugs did report more cases of diarrhea and stomach pain.
Even though the overall benefit for an individual is small—more than 2,000 people would need to take a GLP-1 drug for one person to avoid colon cancer—these drugs are already being used by millions of people.
Researchers estimate that about 6% of Americans are on GLP-1 medications, which adds up to around 20 million people. That could mean a meaningful drop in colon cancer cases nationwide.
While the group of GLP-1 drugs as a whole seemed to lower colon cancer risk, not all individual drugs had the same effect. Only semaglutide, liraglutide, and dulaglutide were linked to reduced cancer risk. Tirzepatide, another GLP-1 drug, did not show a significant impact.
Experts say this early evidence is promising, but more research is needed. The next step will be to test these findings in clinical trials, which can better show if the drugs truly reduce cancer risk over time.
Dr. Joel Saltzman of the Cleveland Clinic, who reviewed the study, noted that these drugs might do much more than help with weight loss or blood sugar.
They could also become part of a strategy to prevent colon cancer in the future. He pointed out that doctors have studied aspirin and other drugs for years as possible ways to prevent cancer, and GLP-1s might soon join that list.
However, because the study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, the results should be considered preliminary. Still, the findings offer new hope that GLP-1 medications could have benefits that reach far beyond weight control.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies that hop extract could reduce belly fat in overweight people, and early time-restricted eating could help lose weight .
For more health information, please see recent studies that Mediterranean diet can reduce belly fat much better, and Keto diet could help control body weight and blood sugar in diabetes.
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