A class of diabetes treatments, which includes the best-selling Ozempic, is associated with a reduced risk of developing certain cancers, according to a study released Friday.
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.
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.
The study, published Friday 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 analog 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.
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.
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,” said study co-author 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 lead doctors to prefer GLP-1 analogues over other diabetes treatments like insulin for patients at high risk of obesity-associated cancers,” she added.
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.
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