Source: Wall Street News Author: Fang Jiayao
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity increases the risk of 13 types of cancer, and a recent study investigated the health records of diabetics and found that certain diabetes medications may help prevent obesity-related cancers. Overnight on Friday, Novo Nordisk shares and Eli Lilly's shares closed up 2.52% and 1.83%, respectively.
A study published in the “JAMA Network Open” on Friday, July 5, EST suggests that certain diabetes and weight loss medications may help reduce the risk of cancer.
Earlier, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that obesity increases the risk of 13 specific types of cancer. These cancers account for 40% of all cancer diagnoses in the US, and research results show that type 2 diabetics using GLP-1 drugs have a lower risk of developing obesity-related cancers compared to patients treated with traditional insulin.
For example, patients using GLP-1 drugs have an almost 50% lower risk of colon cancer than patients treated with insulin alone. Additionally, GLP-1 drugs may also reduce the risk of other digestive tumors, including esophageal cancer, gallbladder cancer, and pancreatic cancer. However, these new drugs do not surpass metformin in cancer prevention, an old drug known to reduce the risk of cancer.
Arif Kamal, the American Cancer Society's chief patient officer, emphasized the link between obesity and cancer risk. He compared obesity to “tobacco for contemporary cancer risk,” and acknowledged the preliminary findings of GLP-1 drugs, which he thought were “quite convincing.”
Since this study involved Novo Nordisk's diabetes medication Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Zepbound. Overnight on Friday, Novo Nordisk shares rose 2.52% and Lilly's shares rose 1.83%.
The study was analyzed by Lindsey Wang, a second-year student in Case Western Reserve University's BS-MD program, and covered electronic health records of more than 1.6 million people with type 2 diabetes over a period of 15 years, up to November 2018. Notably, since Ozempic was introduced to the US market in 2017, most patients in the study used first-generation GLP-1 drugs, such as Novo's Victoza.
Although this finding provides initial evidence of the cancer prevention potential of diabetes and weight loss drugs, scientists say more research is needed to verify whether these drugs actually prevent certain types of cancer, including randomized controlled trials to randomly assign patients to GLP-1 or other treatments.
Furthermore, with the introduction of new versions of more potent GLP-1 drugs, market demand surged, and Goldman Sachs analysts predicted that within the next ten years, the obesity treatment market alone could reach 130 billion dollars.
edit/lambor