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GLP-1 drugs seem to do it all. First approved to treat diabetes, they’ve since transformed how society approaches weight loss. They’re also prescribed for heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease and sleep apnea, among other conditions, and being actively studied for their potential to manage several more.
What about cancer? If the headlines and posts – and the parade of studies they showcase – are to be believed, it seems like GLP-1 drugs have already helped millions of patients reduce their risk of several types of cancer. Is that evidence enough?
“The surest thing I can say is also the least satisfying: It’s still too early,” writes Ziyad Al-Aly, a physician and clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, whose team studies how effective drugs are at treating various conditions. “These drugs are far younger than the cancers they are being credited with preventing.”
Discrepancies with timing weren’t the only issues he found with the studies setting the internet abuzz. Al-Aly took a close look at how researchers were testing the idea that GLP-1 drugs can prevent cancer and found other study biases that throw lukewarm water on the excitement.
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