This medication could reduce the risk of developing cancer

This class of treatments imitates an intestinal hormone (GLP-1), and even if it has existed for around 20 years, a new generation of these drugs has become a real phenomenon in recent years, due to the significant weight loss that it can train.

A significantly lower risk of developing 10 out of 13 cancers

Among this new generation: Ozempic, a treatment from the Danish laboratory Novo Nordisk against type 2 diabetes – a disease for which obesity is a very important risk factor.

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The study, published in the journal Jama, compared patients with type 2 diabetes who received insulin, and others who received this class of treatments, between 2005 and 2018 in the United States.

The GLP-1 analogue treatments studied included those using the molecule liraglutide, lixisenatide, or even semaglutide – that of Ozempic. Ozempic, however, was only approved in the United States in 2017.

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Researchers found that patients who received GLP-1 analogs had a significantly lower risk of developing 10 cancers out of 13 studies, including esophageal, colorectal, kidney, pancreatic, ovarian, and other cancers. more liver.

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“Obesity is known to be associated with at least 13 types of cancer”

However, no significant effect was found in relation to insulin regarding thyroid cancer and breast cancer in post-menopausal women.

“Obesity is known to be associated with at least 13 types of cancer”, underlines a co-author of the study, Rong Xu. Thus, for patients with type 2 diabetes, “particularly those also affected by obesity, GLP-1 analogues could offer protective effects against certain cancers”, she said in a statement to AFP.

“This could encourage doctors to prefer GLP-1 analogues over other diabetes treatments such as insulin for patients at high risk of obesity-associated cancers.”, she added.

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This study is part of an avalanche of others now published on these treatments, bringing hope for millions of people but also astronomical profits for pharmaceutical companies.

Other studies have already pointed to other benefits of this class of treatments, in addition to weight loss, such as a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular diseases.