GLP1, Potential Link to Colorectal Cx Risk
Dec 9, 2023 15:54:46 GMT
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Post by icemandios on Dec 9, 2023 15:54:46 GMT
December 8, 2023 02:46 PM ESTUpdated 03:06 PM
Pharma
New research points to potential link between GLP-1s and lowered risk of colorectal cancer
Nicole DeFeudis
Editor
Popular weight loss and diabetes drugs may also lead to a lower risk of colorectal cancer, according to a research letter published in JAMA.
The retrospective study was conducted by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers who reviewed the health records of more than 1.2 million type 2 diabetes patients who were prescribed various antidiabetics between 2005 and 2019. They found that GLP-1 receptor agonists were associated with reduced risk of colorectal cancer in patients with or without obesity or overweight compared to most other diabetes drugs, including insulin and metformin.
Large, retrospective studies that pull from huge numbers of records can sometimes find effects that are statistically significant, although they’re based on a very small number of cases overall. Of more than 45,000 patients with type 2 diabetes who received either a GLP-1 or insulin, 94 in the GLP-1 group got colorectal cancer, compared to 167 in the insulin group, according to the researchers. The effect was more profound in patients with obesity or overweight, they said.
The results point to a potential new area of study for a class of drugs that has become one of the fastest-selling categories of all time. Novo Nordisk’s obesity and diabetes sales were up more than 180% in Q3 compared to the same period in 2022, with sales totaling more than $1.7 billion (​​12.3 DKK), according to the company’s earnings results.
Nathan Berger
“This shows you the value of looking at these national databases where we could survey 20 years in a short period of time to get a signal, compared to actually doing a 15-year prospective clinical trial,” said Case Western professor Nathan Berger, who co-authored the study. “That still has to be done, but we now have a strong signal that it’s going to be effective.”
Having obesity or being overweight is linked to a higher risk of at least 13 cancer types, including colon, kidney and other cancers, according to the CDC. Those cancer types comprise 40% of all new diagnoses in the US each year.
Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy (semaglutide) was approved for chronic weight management in 2021 and has seen record demand, while Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 competitor Zepbound (tirzepatide) was officially approved for the indication last month. Both companies are conducting studies in related conditions, including cardiovascular events. But the new JAMA results could expand those horizons, according to clinician-scientist Daniel Drucker of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. Drucker’s early discoveries around GLP-1s helped pave the way for today’s class of medicines, and his research team is now hoping to study how GLP-1-based medicines may impact obesity-driven cancers.
“It broadens the discussion beyond weight loss and beyond the reduction of heart disease and makes people realize that there are potential benefits of these medicines for many other conditions that need to be thought about carefully,” Drucker said.
Pharma
New research points to potential link between GLP-1s and lowered risk of colorectal cancer
Nicole DeFeudis
Editor
Popular weight loss and diabetes drugs may also lead to a lower risk of colorectal cancer, according to a research letter published in JAMA.
The retrospective study was conducted by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers who reviewed the health records of more than 1.2 million type 2 diabetes patients who were prescribed various antidiabetics between 2005 and 2019. They found that GLP-1 receptor agonists were associated with reduced risk of colorectal cancer in patients with or without obesity or overweight compared to most other diabetes drugs, including insulin and metformin.
Large, retrospective studies that pull from huge numbers of records can sometimes find effects that are statistically significant, although they’re based on a very small number of cases overall. Of more than 45,000 patients with type 2 diabetes who received either a GLP-1 or insulin, 94 in the GLP-1 group got colorectal cancer, compared to 167 in the insulin group, according to the researchers. The effect was more profound in patients with obesity or overweight, they said.
The results point to a potential new area of study for a class of drugs that has become one of the fastest-selling categories of all time. Novo Nordisk’s obesity and diabetes sales were up more than 180% in Q3 compared to the same period in 2022, with sales totaling more than $1.7 billion (​​12.3 DKK), according to the company’s earnings results.
Nathan Berger
“This shows you the value of looking at these national databases where we could survey 20 years in a short period of time to get a signal, compared to actually doing a 15-year prospective clinical trial,” said Case Western professor Nathan Berger, who co-authored the study. “That still has to be done, but we now have a strong signal that it’s going to be effective.”
Having obesity or being overweight is linked to a higher risk of at least 13 cancer types, including colon, kidney and other cancers, according to the CDC. Those cancer types comprise 40% of all new diagnoses in the US each year.
Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy (semaglutide) was approved for chronic weight management in 2021 and has seen record demand, while Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 competitor Zepbound (tirzepatide) was officially approved for the indication last month. Both companies are conducting studies in related conditions, including cardiovascular events. But the new JAMA results could expand those horizons, according to clinician-scientist Daniel Drucker of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. Drucker’s early discoveries around GLP-1s helped pave the way for today’s class of medicines, and his research team is now hoping to study how GLP-1-based medicines may impact obesity-driven cancers.
“It broadens the discussion beyond weight loss and beyond the reduction of heart disease and makes people realize that there are potential benefits of these medicines for many other conditions that need to be thought about carefully,” Drucker said.