New Delhi: Women who took GLP-1 medications may be 30 per cent less likely to develop breast cancer, a recent study has found. And while it largely generates a hypothesis, the results are significant.
The study found that GLP-1 treatment was associated with a lower incidence of breast cancer, independent of age, race, ethnicity, BMI, breast density, and diabetes.
A previous study had attempted to observe the link between GLP-1s and breast cancer, but its cohort was not diverse. The present study, on the other hand, observed 1,11,646 women aged 45 to 80 years, with a BMI of greater than or equal to 25 (the overweight threshold), and a documented imaging outcome. Of these, 15,264 patients had GLP-1 exposure and 96,382 patients did not.
The researchers analysed electronic health records of the patients from 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2025.
Led by Dr Elizabeth S McDonal, Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the meta-analysis was published in JCO Oncology Practice on 2 June.
‘Magic bullet’?
Research has shown that weight influences the risk of breast cancer. GLP-1 agonists promote weight loss and improve markers of metabolic health, making it worthwhile to study the medication’s link to breast cancer risk.
Breast cancer affects about 30 per cent of 3,82,640 American women. Incidence rates have been slowly increasing since the mid-2000s, largely driven by diagnoses of localised-stage and hormone receptor-positive disease.
There has been much speculation about whether GLP-1 agonists could serve as a “magic bullet” for cancer prevention. Long-term studies are sorely needed, with well-designed clinical trials, to evaluate the impact of the treatment on long-term cancer risk.
In India, breast cancer tops cancers that affect women, representing nearly 27 per cent of all cancers, as one of the most challenging healthcare maladies. It caused an estimated 6,66,103 deaths in 2022.
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