- Researchers have been examining other potential health benefits from GLP-1 agonist medications outside of type 2 diabetes management and weight loss.
- Recent studies have found that GLP-1 medications may be linked to a decreased risk for certain cancers, including colorectal cancer.
- A new study found GLP-1 medications may help lower mortality risk for people who have colon cancer, a type of colorectal cancer.
“GLP‑1 receptor agonists are biologically
“This means that, “in addition to lowering glucose [blood sugar] and weight, they modulate inflammation, cardiovascular physiology, gastric emptying, and potentially tumor biology,“ Cuomo explained.
“As their clinical use accelerates across populations with high cardiometabolic risk, understanding nonglycemic effects becomes a public‑health imperative, particularly where mechanisms plausibly intersect with cancer progression and survival,” he told us.
Adding to what we know about GLP-1 medications and colorectal cancer risk, Cuomo is the lead author of a new study recently published in the journal Cancer Investigation, which found that GLP-1 medications may help lower mortality risk for people who have colon cancer, a type of colorectal cancer.
Out of that number, 103 participants were GLP-1 medication users.
“Colon cancer outcomes are tightly coupled to metabolic dysregulation and obesity. GLP‑1 RAs act precisely on those pathways. Clinical evidence on cancer endpoints has been limited and heterogeneous, creating a clear knowledge gap despite strong biologic plausibility. Leveraging the University of California Health Data Warehouse enabled a real‑world analysis of 6,871 patients with primary colon cancer and rigorous adjustment strategies to probe whether GLP‑1 RA exposure relates to five‑year mortality.”
At the end of the study, researchers found that participants with colon cancer taking GLP-1 medications had a 15.5% mortality risk within 5 years, compared to 37.1% in participants not taking the drugs.
“The difference in mortality signals a potentially meaningful survival advantage for GLP‑1 RA users,” Cuomo said. “Importantly, the association persisted after propensity matching and multivariable adjustment, and remained robust across multiple parameterizations of disease severity using the
“At the same time, effects were concentrated among patients with BMI ≥35 in several different types of statistical modeling, indicating that the benefit may be driven by attenuation of the adverse physiology associated with excess adiposity,” he added. “These patterns position the result as a biologically coherent signal that warrants prospective testing.”
Reflecting on what it might be about GLP-1 drugs that allow them to potentially help lower a person’s colon cancer risk, Cuomo said that any of the same pathways relevant to postdiagnosis outcomes could also reduce carcinogenesis or cancer progression.
“GLP‑1 RAs improve insulin sensitivity, reduce systemic inflammation, and may modulate the tumor microenvironment,” he told us. “These mechanisms are linked to slowed proliferation and enhanced apoptosis in preclinical studies. They also reduce cardiovascular events that compete with cancer‑specific risks, suggesting a dual pathway to improved survival.”
As for the next steps of this research, Cuomo said first is a randomized, controlled evaluation of GLP‑1 RAs as an adjunct to standard colon cancer therapy, stratified by body mass index (BMI) and timed relative to surgery and systemic therapy.
“Second, prospective cohorts with complete staging, dosing, duration, and adherence data, integrated with tumor genomics, systemic biomarkers, and patient‑reported outcomes to dissect mechanisms and identify responsive subgroups,” he continued.
“Third, mechanistic studies, both clinical and translational, which probe inflammatory signaling, insulin/IGF pathways, and the gut microenvironment to determine whether observed benefits are predominantly tumor‑intrinsic, host‑systemic, or both,” said Cuomo.
MNT had the opportunity to speak with Anton Bilchik, MD, PhD, a surgical oncologist, chief of medicine and director of the Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Program at Providence Saint John’s Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, CA, about this study.
Bilchik, who was not involved in this research, commented it is extremely important because it shows that not only do GLP-1 agonists have an effect on weight loss, but there is a potential anticancer effect.
“Now, the anticancer effect could be a consequence of weight loss and some of the other manifestations of these GLP-1 agonist drugs,” Bilchik suggested. “Or these GLP-1 agonist drugs may have a direct anti-cancer effect by impacting the immune microenvironment, the microbiome, and may be anti-inflammatory. All of these have been hypothesized as possible causes of cancers such as colon cancer.”
“I think the most intriguing concept of these GLP-1 agonist drugs is that they were originally described as weight-loss drugs,” he continued. “Now we’re seeing them as being drugs that could be important in cardiovascular disease, drugs that may be important in cancer treatment.”
“So the question therefore arises as to whether there is a possibility that these drugs should be part of the treatment for cancer patients, if in fact there is a direct anti-cancer mechanism within these drugs,” Bilchik added. “[Thus,] the scope of these drugs and the potential benefit of these drugs is likely to be much broader than what was originally described.”
