Diabetes is a risk factor for cancer
West China Hospital of Sichuan University
Researchers are taking a closer look at how medications used to treat diabetes may also influence cancer. While diabetes itself has long been associated with higher cancer risk, scientists are now investigating whether diabetes drugs play a direct role beyond controlling blood sugar levels and body weight.
A recent review examines how widely used treatments such as
metformin, SGLT2 inhibitors, and GLP-1 receptor agonists may affect cancer
growth by changing how cells multiply, how the immune system responds, and how
inflammation develops. These insights point to possible new treatment
strategies while also highlighting how much remains unknown.
Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) has been linked to a higher likelihood of developing several types of cancer, including liver, colorectal, and breast cancer. Managing blood glucose and body weight remains essential for people with diabetes, but growing evidence suggests these factors alone do not fully explain the increased cancer risk.
This has led scientists to explore how
diabetes medications themselves might influence cancer, either by reducing risk
or, in some cases, creating unintended effects. Understanding this connection
could help clarify how diabetes treatments fit into cancer prevention and care,
though further research is still needed to unravel the underlying biology.






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