Cesar Perez, Director of Drug Development at Lake Nona DDU of Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute, shared on LinkedIn:
“GLP-1s may end up being one of the biggest unexpected oncology stories of this decade.
At ASCO 2026, multiple groups are independently reporting signals suggesting potential effects on cancer incidence, recurrence, progression, and survival across multiple tumor types.
Some of the data that caught attention:
Abstract 10506 (Penn)
- ~95,000 women undergoing breast imaging. GLP-1 users had significantly lower odds of breast cancer after adjustment for BMI, breast density, diabetes, and race.
Abstract 3636 (VCU/Massey)
- Stage I–III colorectal cancer patients receiving GLP-1RAs after diagnosis showed improvements in recurrence-free and overall survival, including long-term follow-up.
Abstract 3143 (Cleveland Clinic)
- Across multiple solid tumors, GLP-1 use after diagnosis was associated with lower progression to stage IV disease. High tumor GLP-1 receptor expression also correlated with better survival.
Abstract 10507 (UT Health San Antonio)
- A notable signal: reduced AML incidence, persisting even after adjusting for BMI and prior chemotherapy exposure.
That starts becoming hard to explain purely by weight loss.
Possible mechanisms:
- insulin/IGF signaling
- inflammation reduction
- obesity-related pathways
…but possibly not limited to metabolic effects.
The leukemia signal raises the possibility of deeper biology, potentially involving EHMT1/GLP-related epigenetic pathways.
Important caveat:
- These are retrospective, confounded datasets. None of this is practice-changing today.
But when different institutions, tumor types, and datasets point in a similar direction, it warrants attention.
‘Metabolic oncology‘ is increasingly becoming a defined field.”
Other articles about ASCO on OncoDaily.