They're a group of medications getting a lot of attention lately, and new research suggests they could offer an unexpected benefit.
Study: Weight Loss Drugs Could Cut Certain Cancer Risks By More Than 40%
Published on Jun. 21, 2025
At this point, we all likely know of someone who is taking a drug like Ozempic to either lose weight or manage diabetes (or both). In fact, data shows one in eight American adults has taken a GLP-1 agonist, according to a 2024 KFF health tracking poll. Other types of common GLP-1s include brand names such as Wegovy or Mounjaro, to name a few.
“GLP-1 agonists are a class of medications that mainly help manage blood sugar (glucose) levels in people with Type 2 diabetes. Some GLP-1 agonists can also help treat obesity,” says Cleveland Clinic.
A new study, however, suggests that these medications could provide a promising additional benefit: lowering the risk of obesity-related cancer (ORC). According to health experts, the most common ORC for women is breast cancer after menopause; for men, it’s reportedly colorectal cancer.
The medical journal eClinicalMedicine published in May the findings of a retrospective cohort study conducted by a research team in Israel that sought to learn more about GLP-1 agonists’ “effectiveness for the prevention of [obesity-related cancer].”
To do so, researchers reviewed patient medical records data from Clalit health services, the largest health maintenance organization in Israel, according to its website.
The 6,356 patients observed were 24 years old or older, had diabetes or were considered obese, had no history of an obesity-related cancer, and had either been prescribed a GLP-1 agonist or underwent bariatric metabolic surgery.
Researchers sorted participants into 3,884 pairs based on factors such as age, sex, and baseline body mass index (BMI). In each pair, one patient had taken a GLP-1 agonist between 2010 and 2018 and the other had bariatric metabolic surgery.
The study’s results suggested that obesity-related cancer “occurred in 5.62 cases per 1,000 person-years in [bariatric metabolic surgery] patients, and in 5.89 cases per 1,000 person-years in GLP-1Ra patients.”
When compared to bariatric metabolic surgery, weight loss drugs like GLP-1 agonists could lower the risk of obesity-related cancer by 41%, according to the findings. However, once researchers adjusted for the patients’ ability to manage their blood sugar, this number decreased to 13%.
“Our study found a similar incidence of obesity-related cancer among patients treated with first-generation [GLP-1 drugs] and with bariatric surgery… despite the relative advantage of surgery in maximizing weight loss,” said study author Yael Wolff Sagy, PhD, as reported by Euronews.
Though additional research is needed, researchers theorized that GLP-1 drugs might be more effective than bariatric metabolic surgery as it pertains to obesity-related cancer because it appears to reduce inflammation in the body.
Said Dr. Sagy: “We do not yet fully understand how GLP-1s work, but this study adds to the growing evidence showing that weight loss alone cannot completely account for the metabolic, anti-cancer, and many other benefits that these medications provide.”
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