Behind those headlines is a real wave of studies, involving millions of patients. I'm a physician and clinical epidemiologist, and my team and I design and interpret these same kinds of studies that test what widely used drugs actually do.
Cancer is among the hardest things to study, because it is not one disease but more than a hundred. Breast cancer, lung cancer and blood cancers are not variations of the same disease; each has its own distinct biology and its own mix of genetic, environmental and behavioral risks.
Before the current buzz that GLP-1 drugs could reduce cancer risk, the worry ran in the opposite direction: that they might raise cancer risk.
But rodents are not people. Human thyroid C cells are less sensitive to GLP-1 drugs compared to rodent C cells because they have far fewer GLP-1 receptors. Long-term studies in monkeys did not show the same abnormal thyroid cell growth seen in rodents.
Pancreatic cancer was another concern. Here, too, researchers found no consistent increased risk from taking GLP-1 drugs in a 2025 analysis of data from 62 studies.
The cancer story turns on its head
GLP-1 drugs, once scrutinized for possibly causing cancer, are now being discussed as drugs that might prevent or even treat cancer.
A 2025 study of about 87,000 adults found that overall cancer rates among those who started a GLP-1 drug were roughly 17% lower, with the clearest reductions in endometrial and ovarian cancers as well as a type of brain cancer called meningioma. The risk of kidney cancer was 38% higher among patients taking GLP-1 drugs, though larger studies are needed to confirm its significance.
Researchers are also studying how GLP-1 drugs affect a patient's chances of surviving cancer. Among more than 6,800 colon cancer patients in a 2024 study, around 16% of the 103 on a GLP-1 drug died within five years compared to 37% of those who were not taking one. A study presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology reported a 34% lower risk of death across six cancer types for those taking GLP-1 drugs.
The first is healthy user bias. People who start a GLP-1 drug tend to be healthier and wealthier than those who do not. A person with obesity who has insurance, sees doctors regularly and can afford Ozempic is far more likely to start the drug than someone with the same height and weight who lacks those advantages.
The second is the choice of the comparison drug. To understand the effect of a drug, it has to be measured against something else. What it's measured against will shape the results of the study. The 2024 study reported that patients taking GLP-1 drugs saw large reductions in cancer risk compared to those taking insulin. But comparing patients on GLP-1 drugs with patients taking the diabetes drug metformin showed no clear reduction in cancer risk.
The third is timing. It is not so much another source of bias as a clue that other biases may be at work. Cancer can take decades to develop, yet most GLP-1 studies follow people for only a handful of years. In some studies, the apparent cancer benefits of GLP-1 drugs show almost immediately. But prevention doesn't work that quickly. A drug that truly lowered the risk of developing cancer would show its effect gradually as fewer tumors surface over time, not within the first few months of taking a drug.
Moreover, almost all of this research comes from a handful of high-income countries, even as uptake of these drugs is increasing globally and the burden of cancer has disproportionately grown in lower-income countries. The idea that GLP-1s may reduce cancer risk for much of the world is being inferred from data generated almost entirely in a few rich ones.
What do randomized trials show?
Available clinical trials tell a quieter story than the headlines. Two 2025 meta-analyses, which pool data from multiple studies — one covering 50 trials and a second covering 48 — found little evidence that GLP-1 drugs either raise or lower cancer risk.
There are many GLP-1 brands available for consumers. (Image credit: Iuliia Burmistrova via Getty Images)Randomized clinical trials designed to answer the question of whether GLP-1 drugs affect cancer risk would need to enroll tens of thousands of people and follow them for many years. Short of that, the next best evidence will come from observational studies designed to emulate randomized trials.
The bottom line
Related storiesStudy links GLP-1 use to some pregnancy risks — but the research has key caveatsOzempic-style drugs tied to more than 60 health benefits and risks in biggest study-of-its-kindDiagnostic dilemma: Huge mass in woman's stomach was likely caused by Ozempic-style drug — and dissolved with diet soda
Suppose GLP-1s do have an effect on cancer risk. Researchers still would not know where that effect comes from: weight loss itself, broader improvement in metabolic function, or a more direct effect on inflammation, the immune system or tumors.
This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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