Weight loss injections could help prevent cancer beyond helping people slim down, new research suggests.
The study said that there were similar rates of obesity-related cancer among patients treated with the injections and those given weight loss, or bariatric, surgery.
It also found weight loss jabs, officially GLP-1 receptor agonists, could almost halve the risk of related cancers – in addition to the expected health benefits from losing weight.
Dr Yael Wolff Sagy, the study’s co-lead author from Clalit Health Services in Tel-Aviv, Israel, said a “direct effect” of the injections was that they were found “to be 41% more effective at preventing obesity-related cancer”.
She added: “We do not yet fully understand how GLP-1s work, but this study adds to the growing evidence showing that weight loss alone cannot completely account for the metabolic, anti-cancer, and many other benefits that these medications provide.”
Being overweight or obese is the second biggest cause of cancer in the UK, causing more than one in 20 cancer cases, according to the NHS.
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In the study, researchers looked at electronic health record data for obese people and those with type 2 diabetes, all with no prior history of cancer, who were treated with first-generation GLP-1 receptor agonists.
Over a typical follow-up of seven and a half years, 298 patients were diagnosed with obesity-related cancer, with the most common types being breast, bowel and womb cancer.
The analysis found that obesity-related cancer occurred in 150 of 3,178 bariatric surgery patients and in 148 of 3,178 patients taking GLP-1 receptor agonists, despite the “relative advantage” of bariatric surgery in weight reduction.
Further study suggested the drugs had a direct effect on reducing obesity-related cancer beyond weight loss, with a 41% lower relative risk compared to bariatric surgery.
Co-lead Professor Dror Dicker, from Hasharon Hospital, Rabin Medical Centre in Israel, suggested the protective effects of the drugs “likely arise from multiple mechanisms, including reducing inflammation”.
“New generation, highly potent GLP1-RAs with higher efficacy in weight reduction may convey an even greater advantage in reducing the risk of obesity-related cancers,” he added, before warning that future research is needed “to make sure that these drugs do not increase the risk for non-obesity-related cancers”.
Naveed Sattar, professor of cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, also cautioned that the study “cannot confirm or refute any links of incretin-based therapies [medicines to treat type 2 diabetes] with cancer as the design was not a trial but rather observational”.
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The study was published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, and was presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga.
It comes as the NHS weighs up offering weight loss drugs from pharmacies at the cost of a standard prescription – £9.90.
At the moment, there is a two-year waiting list for Wegovy on the NHS – and last year, research by Sky News showed the rollout is happening far more slowly than planned.
