GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic have 'completely revolutionized the way that we think about all aspects of diseases,' Dr. Fei-Fei Liu says.LEE SMITH/Reuters
Steven Chan looks to Ozempic with the hopeful eyes of an oncologist who has watched too many patients suffer from acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a nasty blood cancer that becomes more common as people age.
Dr. Chan knows that Ozempic and drugs like it are anti-inflammatory drugs. That made him wonder: Could they cut the risk of AML by tamping down inflammation in a population of mutant blood cells that are often the earliest harbingers of the disease?
Dr. Chan, a senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, is trying to answer that question with $2-million in new funding for a five-year study he’ll run with his colleagues Stephanie Xie, also a scientist at Princess Margaret, and Daniel Drucker, the endocrinologist best known for helping to discover the class of drugs that includes Ozempic.
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Dr. Chan’s project is one of 19 studies of cancer prevention and early detection that the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and other funders will announce on Thursday at Princess Margaret, which is part of the University Health Network in Toronto.
The $41-million commitment could mark a turning point in the public funding of cancer research in Canada, the bulk of which has traditionally gone toward treating cancer, not stopping it before it starts, according to Fei-Fei Liu, scientific director of the Institute of Cancer Research at CIHR.
“We actually believe this could be Canada’s largest single investment completely focused solely on cancer prevention research,” said Dr. Liu, also a radiation oncologist at Princess Margaret.
Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel will be on hand Thursday to unveil the list of studies, led by scientific teams from across the country. Other funders include the Canadian Cancer Society, the Terry Fox Research Institute, the Cancer Research Society, and BioCanRx, a network of immunotherapy researchers.
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The studies will try to prevent multiple types of cancer in different ways.
For example, one will test an inexpensive drug designed to stop milk production in new mothers to see whether it prevents breast cancer in women with the BRCA1 mutation, an inherited cause of breast cancer.
Another will try to figure out why eating ultra-processed food seems to raise the risk of colorectal cancer.
Yet another, undertaken in partnership with the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, will probe the biological underpinnings of early-onset colorectal and pancreatic cancer to better understand why those diseases are on the rise in people younger than 50.
Three of the studies involve glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s) the class that includes semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, and tirzepatide, the drug better known as Mounjaro or Zepbound.
They include Dr. Chan’s research on GLP-1s and blood cancer; a separate study evaluating whether and how GLP-1s might reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer and postmenopausal breast cancer; and a third project looking at the possible role of incretin mimetics in preventing cancer. (Incretin mimetics are a broader class of diabetes drugs that includes GLP-1s.)
There is good reason to believe GLP-1s might reduce the risk of cancer, Dr. Liu and Dr. Chan both said in interviews before the funding announcement. Obesity and diabetes are established risk factors for some cancers.
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But some preliminary research suggests the effects of GLP-1s on cancer risk could be independent of weight loss and blood-sugar control, raising questions about how GLP-1s work and who else might benefit from taking them.
“GLP-1 has just completely revolutionized the way that we think about all aspects of diseases,” Dr. Liu said. “There does appear to be a signal suggesting that it could potentially be associated with reduced risk of cancer development. But I think the scientific truth on that still remains to be determined.”
Dr. Chan hopes his work can play a small part in elucidating that truth. More importantly, he hopes it will some day lead to fewer patients suffering from age-related cancers like AML.
“If there are ways to prevent cancers from happening in the first place,” he added, “that can really help in decreasing the burden on our health care system.”