Research shows that treatments like Ozempic may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer.

A diabetes treatment, including the best-selling drug Ozempic, may reduce the risk of developing certain cancers, according to a study published Friday.

That’s because they mimic a gut hormone (GLP-1). A new generation of these drugs, which have been around for about two decades, has become a phenomenon in recent years because it can help you lose weight.

These include Ozempic, a drug from Danish lab Novo Nordisk for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, a disease for which obesity is a major risk factor.

A study published Friday in the journal JAMA compared patients with type 2 diabetes who were treated with insulin with other patients who received that type of treatment between 2005 and 2018 in the United States.

The GLP-1 analogue treatments studied included those using the liraglutide, lixisenatide, or semaglutide molecules, including Ozempic, which was only approved in the US in 2017.

The researchers found that patients receiving GLP-1 analogs had a significantly lower risk of developing 10 of the 13 cancers studied, including esophageal, colorectal, kidney, pancreatic, ovarian and liver cancers.

However, no significant effect was found for thyroid and breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

“Obesity is known to be associated with at least 13 types of cancer,” said Rong Xu, co-author of the study.

For patients with type 2 diabetes, “especially those who are obese, GLP-1 analogues may have a protective effect against certain types of cancer,” he told AFP.

“This may encourage physicians to favor GLP-1 analogues over other diabetes treatments, such as insulin, in patients at high risk of developing obesity-related cancer,” he added.

Other published studies of these treatments offer hope for millions of people, such as weight loss and reduced risk of heart disease, as well as astronomical profits for pharmaceutical companies.

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