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TOPLINE:

Patients with obesity who were treated with GLP-1 receptor agonists or dual GLP-1/glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptor agonists had a lower overall cancer risk and a lower risk for skin cancer than untreated patients.

METHODOLOGY:

• The use of GLP-1 and dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists may affect the risk for cancer, but long-term, real-world evidence remains limited.
• Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from the TriNetX database to evaluate whether receipt of tirzepatide and/or semaglutide was associated with the long-term incidence of cancer.
• They included patients aged 18-75 years with obesity (BMI ≥ 30) who received tirzepatide and/or semaglutide through December 2021. These patients were propensity score-matched with patients who did not receive the drugs.
• The primary outcome was incident cancer during 5 years of follow-up.
• Patients who received other GLP-1 medications and those with a preexisting malignancy were excluded from the analysis.

TAKEAWAY:

• The analysis included 46,142 matched pairs of treated and untreated patients; the mean age was 51 years, and 56% were women.
• Patients treated with GLP-1 or GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists had a lower overall incidence of cancers than those untreated (7.5% vs 9.1%), corresponding to a reduced risk (hazard ratio [HR], 0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.96).
• Treatment with GLP-1 or GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists was associated with a 25% reduced risk for skin cancer (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.66-0.85).
• No significant differences were observed for the risks for gastrointestinal, pancreatic, hepatobiliary, or other cancers.

IN PRACTICE:

“In this large cohort study, GLP-1 and GLP-1/GIP use was associated with a significant reduction in the overall cancer risk and in skin cancers, with no significant differences in gastrointestinal cancers, pancreatic cancers, as well as hepatobiliary cancers,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Yassine Kilani, Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston. It was presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2026 in Chicago.

LIMITATIONS:

The abstract did not explicitly mention any limitations. However, the authors acknowledged the need for large-scale prospective studies to elucidate the oncologic safety of the GLP-1 drugs.

DISCLOSURES:

No funding details or conflicts of interest were provided for this study.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.