Medications commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes may also be effective in preventing type 2 diabetes. colorectal cancer (CRC), based on new analysis by US researchers.

The drug in question is a type of drug known as. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist – More simply referred to as GLP-1 RA. These drugs also include a widely known “magic bullet” sold under the brand name Wegovy, which has also previously been linked to weight loss and risk reduction. cardiovascular problems.

I know I’m overweight and have type 2 diabetes. increases CRC riskAnd while these drugs claim to be effective in those areas, they also reduced colon cancer cases in people who were not overweight or obese.

“Our results clearly demonstrate that GLP-1 RAs are significantly more effective than common antidiabetic drugs such as metformin and insulin in preventing the development of CRC.” To tell Nathan Berger, medical research scientist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine;

Berger and his colleagues combed through data collected from more than 1 million patients in the U.S. national medical records database to identify patients with type 2 diabetes who had received a variety of treatments for the disease. . Matches were then made based on as many characteristics as possible, including gender, race, age, and socio-economic status.

In 22,572 treated type 2 diabetic patients, insulin, 167 CRC cases were recorded. In a matched pool of 22,572 type 2 diabetic patients treated with GLP-1 RA, there were only 94 cases of colorectal cancer, a 44 percent reduction.

The research team also looked at two groups of 18,518 matched type 2 diabetic patients treated with the drug. metformin, in contrast to GLP-1 RA. Here, the number of CRC cases was 153 and 96, respectively. This is a 37% decrease; hazard ratio This drops to 25% (when you add in factors such as how long each patient was monitored).

Restricting the group to obese or overweight patients further reduced the comparative risk. In these cohorts, GLP-1 RAs were associated with a 50% reduction in colorectal cancer cases compared with insulin, and a 58% reduction in patients treated with GLP-1 RAs compared to those treated with metformin. Did.

These results are not sufficient to prove that GLP-1 RA in particular is protective against CRC, although the different groups are in good agreement as possible, but further research and clinical trial It’s worth pursuing.

These trials will allow us to take a closer look at GLP-1 RA and analyze how it might prevent the development of colorectal cancer.

Obesity remains common and CRC second most common cause Cancer causes approximately 52,550 deaths per year in the United States, and any improvement in treatment would certainly be welcome.

“To our knowledge, this is the first example showing that this popular weight loss and antidiabetic drug class reduces the incidence of colorectal cancer compared to other antidiabetic drugs.” To tell “This is a huge step forward for us,” said Rong Xu, a biomedical informaticist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

This research JAMA Oncology.

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