RICHMOND, Va. — GLP-1 medications may offer benefits beyond weight loss and diabetes management, including improved outcomes for breast cancer patients who are obese or have type 2 diabetes, according to new research.
The study was recently published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. Dr. Kristina Tatum with VCU is the lead author.
"What we initially wanted to look at these medications to understand the potential benefit of GLP-1 use and breast cancer survival and recurrence," Dr. Tatum said.
Tatum recently presented the findings, which showed a positive association between GLP-1s and breast cancer outcomes.
"It was very exciting to see our results signal and go in the right direction," Tatum said.
The retrospective study looked at patients on GLP-1s from five to 10 years ago and then followed them.
"Our hypothesis was that because these GLP-1s have been useful for controlling diabetes, controlling weight. Then we would expect similar benefits among breast cancer patients who are obese or have type 2 diabetes," said Dr. Bernard Fuemmeler with VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, who is the senior author on the study.
Breast cancer patients who are also obese or have type 2 diabetes experience more aggressive cancer growth and worse outcomes. The positive association from GLP-1s may be due to weight control, improved cardiovascular health or other mechanisms.
"It's a collaborative research project and we're continuing to do this research. We think it's important to better clarify the use of these new modern medications for managing type 2 diabetes and obesity and they might be important to cancer survival," Dr. Fuemmeler said.
Dr. Fuemmeler encouraged patients to speak with their doctors before starting GLP-1 medications.
"I would encourage folks to really have careful conversations with their physician, make a shared decision about whether to start the GLP-1s, and then to really monitor it. What's happening as they're taking the GLP-1s so they're not losing lean mass, which is very important in cancer survival as well," Dr. Fuemmeler said.
Both Fuemmeler and Tatum agree that more studies are needed, including digging further into the data and following patients even longer.
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