Ron DePinho, Professor and Past President of MD Anderson Cancer Center, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“A striking signal in colon cancer: GLP-1 agonists may offer a major survival advantage.
A new retrospective analysis from UC San Diego reports that colon cancer patients who had been treated with GLP-1 receptor agonists showed a 62% lower 5-year mortality rate compared with non-users.
15.5% vs. 37.1% 5-year mortality is a dramatic difference — even after adjusting for confounders.
The effect was most pronounced in patients with BMI >35, pointing toward a powerful metabolic–inflammatory connection in colorectal cancer biology.
What’s particularly interesting is that the survival benefit wasn’t only from reduced cancer progression — GLP-1 users also had markedly fewer heart attacks and strokes. These drugs appear to be reshaping systemic risk in ways that extend beyond glycemic control and weight.
Of course, the sample of GLP-1 users was small (n=103), so these results need validation in prospective clinical trials. But taken together with emerging data showing reduced incidence of obesity-related cancers, and emerging mechanistic work in myelofibrosis and lung cancer, it’s clear that we are only beginning to understand the oncologic implications of metabolic therapeutics.
In a field where colorectal cancer remains a leading killer — and increasingly affecting younger adults — this line of investigation could open new doors for prevention, treatment, and survivorship.
Metabolism. Inflammation. Cancer. The threads are converging.
More from Ron DePinho on OncoDaily.