Ozempic and similar weight-loss drugs linked to 30% lower breast cancer risk
Key takeaways
- Popular medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound may offer an unexpected benefit beyond helping people lose weight and manage diabetes.
- The findings were presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting and published in JCO Oncology Practice.
- Ozempic, Wegovy, and Other GLP-1 Drugs Draw Cancer Research Interest
Why this matters: new research or scientific developments with potential real-world impact.
Popular medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound may offer an unexpected benefit beyond helping people lose weight and manage diabetes. New research involving more than 110,000 women found that those taking GLP-1 drugs, a category that includes semaglutide-based medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, were significantly less likely to develop breast cancer.
The findings were presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting and published in JCO Oncology Practice. Researchers reported that women using GLP-1 medications had roughly a 30% lower likelihood of developing breast cancer compared with women who were not taking the drugs.
"While our study was observational and does not definitively confirm an association between GLP-1 medications and reduced breast cancer incidence, it does add to the growing body of evidence suggesting that it's worth investigating these weight-loss drugs as potential cancer prevention tools," said Elizabeth McDonald, MD, PhD, a professor of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and a practicing breast radiologist at Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.