Alarming cancer spike after Ozempic: Is it because of the drug or the doctor?
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“It doesn't necessarily mean that there is an increasing incidence of these cancers—maybe we are detecting things more because we are screening more.” — Mir Ali, MD
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In its approvals of various GLP-1 medications, the US FDA has warned healthcare professionals and patients about an increased risk of thyroid cancer for certain individuals while using these drugs.[][]
Many of these medications come with a Boxed Warning about the potential increased risk in thyroid C-cell tumors among people who have had, or who have family members who have ever had, medullary thyroid carcinoma. These people should not use the drug, nor should anyone with multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2.
Despite the warnings, however, the question of if and to what extent GLP-1 medications increase overall thyroid cancer risk is up for debate. Some studies show a link between usage and increased risks, while others do not establish this same connection.
Read more of our most recent coverage on GLP-1 drugs:
What the latest research says
Now, new research suggests that increased thyroid cancer detection among people using GLP-1 medications may be less attributable to an increased risk from the medications themselves than to an increased effort by providers to perform diagnostic tests on GLP-1 patients.[]
While more studies may be needed to pin down the answer to this question, Mir Ali, MD, a board-certified bariatric surgeon and the medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, reminds doctors and patients that for now, the risk of thyroid cancer from GLP-1 medications is most worrisome for people with a personal or family history of specific hereditary thyroid cancers—and not for the general population.
“Unless the patient has a very rare familial thyroid cancer disorder, for the most part, there isn't a lot of evidence saying that it increases your risk for thyroid cancer,” Dr. Ali says.
Keep these things in mind, in the clinic
Additionally, he reminds skeptics that people have been on these medications for many years to treat diabetes, meaning that their safety profile has been tested.
“It's just more recently—in the last few years they've really exploded for weight loss,” Dr. Ali says. “So, there's a lot of data [on] patients that are taking these medications, and they haven't really found an increased risk of thyroid cancer in the general population.”
Still, Dr. Ali says increasing screenings for thyroid cancer can be a good thing, and that it is smart to stay vigilant about disease risks. “It’s not a bad idea to be screening,” Dr. Ali says. “It doesn't necessarily mean that there is an increasing incidence of these cancers—maybe we are detecting things more because we are screening more.”
“All kinds of screenings are a good way to detect cancers or other conditions early so that they're more likely to be cured,” Dr. Ali adds.
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