Weight-loss jabs 'highly effective at preventing obesity-related cancers'

Weight-loss jabs could almost halve the risk of obesity-related cancers, a landmark study suggests.

- Anna Bawden

Cancer experts said the findings were "transformational" and could herald a "whole new era of preventative cancer medicine".

Obesity is associated with 13 different cancers. While losing weight reduces that risk, scientists have calculated that weight-loss injections have a bigger protective effect over and above shedding the pounds.

Researchers in Israel studied 6,000 adults with no prior history of cancer, who either underwent bariatric surgery or took the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists liraglutide (Saxenda), exenatide (Byetta) or dulaglutide (Trulicity).

The drugs work by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone in the body that lowers blood sugar levels and makes people feel fuller for longer.

Although those who had bariatric surgery lost about double the weight of those on weight-loss medication, the study, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga, Spain, and published in eClinicalMedicine, found the reduction in cancer risk was broadly the same.

Bariatric surgery reduced the risk of cancer by 30-42%, the researchers said. Therefore, accounting for the relative advantage of surgery in reducing patients' weight, the authors found that weight-loss drugs were more effective at preventing obesity-related cancer.