GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro have become widely known for helping people lose weight and control diabetes.
Over the past few years, these medications have rapidly grown in popularity around the world. Many people take them to lower blood sugar, reduce appetite, and improve obesity-related health problems.
Now, scientists are discovering that these drugs may also affect cancer.
A new study suggests that GLP-1 medications may help slow the spread of certain obesity-related cancers. The findings will be presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago, one of the world’s largest cancer conferences.
Researchers found that people taking GLP-1 drugs appeared less likely to develop metastatic cancer compared to people taking another common diabetes medication known as DPP-4 inhibitors, often called gliptins.
Metastatic cancer happens when cancer spreads from its original location to other parts of the body. This stage, also called stage IV cancer, is usually much more difficult to treat and is responsible for many cancer-related deaths.
The study focused on seven obesity-related cancers: breast cancer, prostate cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
Researchers analyzed the health records of 12,112 people stored in the TriNetX medical database. All patients had stage I, II, or III cancer when the study began, meaning the disease had not yet spread to distant organs.
About half of the patients started taking GLP-1 medications after their cancer diagnosis, while the other half took gliptins.
The GLP-1 medications included liraglutide, semaglutide, tirzepatide, dulaglutide, pramlintide, and lixisenatide.
The researchers then compared how many people in each group later developed stage IV metastatic cancer.
The results were especially striking for four cancer types: lung, breast, colorectal, and liver cancer.
For these cancers, people taking GLP-1 drugs were 38% to 50% less likely to develop metastatic disease than people taking gliptins.
In lung cancer patients, metastasis occurred in 10% of people using GLP-1 drugs compared with 22% of people taking gliptins.
In breast cancer patients, metastasis developed in 10% of the GLP-1 group compared with 20% of the gliptin group.
For colorectal cancer, the rates were 13% versus 22%.
For liver cancer, the rates were 19% versus 28%.
The researchers also observed lower metastasis rates in prostate, pancreatic, and kidney cancer among people taking GLP-1 medications. However, these differences were not statistically strong enough to prove a clear effect.
The team also investigated whether the GLP-1 system itself may play a role inside tumors.
Cancer cells sometimes contain GLP-1 receptors, which are special structures that respond to GLP-1 signals.
Using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas, researchers studied how much GLP-1 receptor expression existed inside tumors and compared it with patient survival.
Overall, patients whose tumors had higher GLP-1 receptor expression had a 33% lower risk of death compared with patients whose tumors had low receptor levels.
The effect was especially strong in breast cancer, where the risk of death was reduced by 45%.
According to the researchers, this suggests that GLP-1 signaling may somehow help slow cancer progression in certain tumors.
Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how this might happen.
One possibility is that GLP-1 drugs directly affect cancer cells and slow their growth. Another theory is that the medications change the environment surrounding tumors or improve immune system activity against cancer.
Researchers also believe the drugs may reduce inflammation, improve metabolism, or alter how cancer cells obtain energy.
Importantly, the study found no major increase in side effects related to stomach or pancreas inflammation in people taking GLP-1 medications compared with gliptins.
This is notable because concerns have sometimes been raised about possible pancreas-related side effects from GLP-1 drugs.
Lead author Dr. Mark David Orland from the Cleveland Clinic said the findings provide early evidence that future research into GLP-1 drugs and cancer progression is worthwhile.
However, the researchers stress that the findings do not yet prove that GLP-1 medications directly prevent cancer spread.
This was a real-world observational study using medical records rather than a randomized clinical trial.
That means the study can identify associations but cannot fully prove cause and effect.
The scientists now hope to conduct randomized controlled trials, which are considered the gold standard in medical research.
These future studies may help determine whether GLP-1 medications could eventually become part of cancer treatment strategies.
If you care about weight, please read studies about diet that can treat fatty liver disease, obesity, and hop extract could reduce belly fat in overweight people.
For more information about weight, please see recent studies about how to curb your cravings for ready-to-eat foods, and results showing what you can eat to speed your metabolism up.
Source: American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.
