GLP-1 drugs may reduce the risk of cancer progressing, study suggests

CancerGLP-1 drugs may reduce the risk of cancer progressing, study suggestsResearch from the Cleveland Clinic found that people who started a GLP-1 drug after their diagnosis was less likely to progress to stage 4.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Lung cancer seen on an MRI scan.Cavallini James / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 21, 2026, 5:02 PM EDTBy Kaitlin SullivanGLP-1 drugs may be linked to a lower risk of cancer progression, according to new research that will be presented next week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The list of health benefits tied to the diabetes and weight loss drugs has been growing — approvals have been expanded to reduce risk of heart disease (Wegovy), to prevent worsening kidney disease (Ozempic) and to treat obstructive sleep apnea (Zepbound) — and researchers continue to look for other possibilities. The latest research, which is not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal, adds to a growing number of early studies showing that GLP-1s could have anti-cancer effects. Dr. Mark Orland, an internal medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic, led the study. Orland and his colleagues looked at patient records from the TriNetX Global Health Research Network database, identifying more than 10,000 people who had been diagnosed with one of seven types of cancer — breast, colorectal, kidney, liver, lung, pancreatic and prostate cancers. All the patients had stage 1, 2 or 3 cancer and started taking a GLP-1 drug after their cancer diagnosis.It is unclear whether the people in the study were prescribed the medication for diabetes or obesity. As a control, the researchers matched everyone in the GLP-1 group to people with the same type and stage of cancer, and the same comorbidities such as obesity or smoking, to make the groups as similar as possible. The difference was that people in the control...