DAILY MAIL
Drugs like Ozempic may prevent a deadly cancer rising in young people, a major study indicates.
Researchers looked at medical records of more than 1.2million Americans with type 2 diabetes who were aged between x and y over a xyear-long period.
They found that people who took GLP-1 receptor agonists drugs, the family which Ozempic and Wegovy belong to, had an 44 percent lower risk of getting colorectal cancer compared to diabetics treated with insulin.
The protective effects of the medicines were evident in people with and without obesity, according to what the doctors say is a ‘critically important’ discovery.
Colorectal cancer rates in young people are expected to double by 2030 and, while the cause is not known for certain, doctors are increasingly pointing the finger at the country’s high obesity rate – around four in 10 adults are obese – and poor dietary practices.
The dual benefit of keeping patients’ weight down and preventing insulin resistance is thought to protect against the formation of tumors.
Dr Nathan Berger, co-leader of the study and a professor of experimental medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said: ‘The research is critically important for reducing incidence of CRC [colorectal cancer] in patients with diabetes, with or without overweight and obesity.
‘Our results clearly demonstrate that GLP-1 [receptor agonists] are significantly more effective than popular anti-diabetic drugs, such as Metformin or insulin, at preventing the development of CRC.’
The researchers looked at more than 1.2 million people with diabetes.
They relied on a massive database of electronic health records to perform a study matching as many people as possible with the same characteristics—sex, race, age, socioeconomic status, and other medical conditions—to accurately compare new diabetes drugs in the same class as Ozempic with traditional diabetes treatments.
Among more than 22,500 diabetics who were treated with insulin, there were 167 cases of CRC.
Meanwhile, among the same size population treated with GLP-1 receptor agonists, there were 94 cases, amounting to a nearly 44 percent reduction.
In a similar comparison of more than 18,500 patients with diabetes treated with Metformin, compared to the same number of patients with diabetes treated with GLP-1 receptor agonists, had a 25 percent reduction in CRC.
The rest of the roughly 1 million participants were on different diabetes drugs.
Dr Rong Xu, a professor at the School of Medicine, said: ‘To our knowledge, ‘this is the first indication this popular weight-loss and anti-diabetic class of drugs reduces incidence of CRC, relative to other anti-diabetic agents.’
Their research was published in the journal JAMA Oncology.
People with obesity, or those with a body mass index above 30, are 1.3 times more likely to get colorectal cancer compared to people without.
CRC is typically seen in older adults over 50, but a growing number of people as young as in their 20s are being diagnosed.
Based on data from JAMA Surgery, between 2010 and 2030, colon cancer will have increased by 90 percent in people ages 20 to 34. Rectal cancer will have spiked by 124 percent in the same age group.
