The University of Tennessee Health Science Center has been placed at the forefront of the critical global dialogue surrounding blockbuster obesity drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy with the publication of a commentary co-authored by Professor Liza Makowski, PhD, associate director for Education and Development in the Center for Cancer Research at UT Health Science Center.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs have revolutionized obesity care for millions of Americans, making them some of the most talked-about medical breakthroughs of the decade. Yet several questions remain, including their long-term effects on cancer risk. Dr. Makowski and her colleagues examined this question in an article published in the highly respected journal Nature Reviews Cancer.
“GLP-1 receptor targeting drugs have allowed for unprecedented weight loss for many Americans, yet we don’t fully understand the long-term cancer implications,” Dr. Makowski said. “We know that weight loss through bariatric surgery can reduce cancer risk, but it’s too soon to know if we will also see these anti-cancer benefits with new GLP drugs.”
Dr. Makowski has spent much of her career studying how obesity and being overweight can cause metabolic imbalances that contribute to cancer. Her lab has long focused on how weight loss through diet and surgery can reverse those imbalances and reveal potential targets to stop cancer. The rise of GLP-1 drugs has added a new aspect to her work.
“For the first time in human history, we have a family of drugs that can profoundly change the metabolic state. That’s why understanding links to cancer is urgent,” she said. “It is our goal to determine if and how GLP-1 drugs will reduce a patient’s chances of getting cancer and even help improve cancer treatments.”
While the commentary is authored by members of a nationwide research consortium funded by the National Cancer Institute, its implications are especially relevant for Tennessee. The state has some of the highest cancer death rates in the country, particularly in the Appalachian regions in the east and the Mid-South in the west. The Makowski Lab ensures local communities are not overlooked but are instead integral to the broader conversation around the links between obesity and cancer.
“We recruit study subjects from patients undergoing weight loss approaches including bariatric surgery or GLP-1 receptor targeting drugs such as Wegovy or Zepbound to our studies,” she said. “Not only are we part of a global movement to combine the field of obesity research with cancer discovery, but we are doing this in our own backyard in West Tennessee.”
Dr. Makowski is looking ahead to the next phase of research, with an emphasis on the need for long-term studies to understand how GLP-1 drugs affect cancer risk and outcomes. She noted several urgent priorities including population studies, laboratory research on underlying biological mechanisms, and clinical trials to test potential therapeutic targets.
While the research is ongoing, Dr. Makowski emphasized one of the most important messages from the review is that GLP-1 drugs should not be viewed as a standalone solution. She said medical providers should help their patients understand these medications are part of a lifestyle change with attention to nutrition and activity, and they should continue to encourage resistance exercise and adequate protein intake.
“Medication should complement, not replace, healthy lifestyle habits,” she said. “In the face of rapid adoption of such a blockbuster drug, which has allowed patients to lose weight effectively, we caution that these ‘miracle drugs’ should be recommended with the proper nutrition and exercise education from their doctors, just like a diabetes or high blood pressure prescription.”
In addition to Dr. Makowski, the collaborators on the Nature Reviews Cancer article are corresponding author James R. Hébert, ScD, E. Angela Murphy, PhD, Ciaran M. Fairman, PhD, and Lorne J. Hofseth, PhD, all from the University of South Carolina, as well as Mary C. Playdon, PhD, and Anna R. Ibele, MD, from the University of Utah.
This blog was written by Chris Green
Chris Green is a strategic communications specialist at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
