NNew research shows that the GLP-1 class of drugs – glucagon-like peptide receptor agonists – is more effective at reducing the risk of ten obesity-associated cancers than the type 2 diabetes drug alternatives.
The retrospective study, published Friday in JAMA Network Open, measured outcomes for a cohort of more than 1.6 million patients with type 2 diabetes from 2005 to 2018 who were prescribed GLP-1s, insulin, or metformin. The researchers used data from the first time point, when one of the medications was prescribed, until fifteen years later.
Rong Xu, professor of biomedical informatics at Case Western Reserve University and author of the study, said the known efficacy of GLP-1 drugs in treating weight loss and managing type 2 diabetes prompted researchers to conduct the study .
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