May 11, 2025

expert reaction to conference poster about GLP-1 obesity drugs (compared with bariatric surgery) and obesity-related cancer

A conference poster presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga and published in eClinicalMedicine looks at obesity drugs (GLP1s) and obesity-related cancer. 

Prof Naveed Sattar, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine/Honorary Consultant, University of Glasgow, said:

“This study, whilst interesting, cannot confirm or refute any links of incretin based therapies with cancer as the design was not a trial but rather observational, and there were quite marked differences between the groups in baseline characteristics that simply cannot be matched.  It is better to wait to see further large outcome trials versus placebo to get closer to the truth.  In people with T2D, GLP-1RAs did not increase risk of incident cancer relative to placebo as recently reported in an updated meta-analysis of over 70K patients across 10 outcome trials (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40156846/).  SELECT trial also did not report a difference in cancer relative to placebo but cancer events were small.  Hence, larger outcome trials are needed to understand links between such medicines and cancer risks, and several should report over the next 5 years.”

Conference poster: ‘Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists versus bariatric metabolic surgery and obesity-related cancer’ by Yael Wolff Sagy et al.  This was presented as a poster at the European Congress on Obesity. The embargo lifted at 23:01 UK time on Saturday 10 May 2025.

Paper: ‘Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists compared with bariatric metabolic surgery and the risk of obesity-related cancer: an observational, retrospective cohort study’ by Yael Wolff Sagy et al was published in eClinicalMedicine at 23:01 UK time on Sunday 11 May 2025. 

10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103213

Declared interests

Prof Naveed Sattar: “NS has consulted for and/or received speaker honoraria from Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie, Afimmune, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Carmot Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Hanmi Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, Menarini-Ricerche, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Metsera, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Roche; and received grant support paid to his University from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, and Roche. No shares in any medical areas.”