{"id":184390,"date":"2025-10-08T02:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/184390\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T02:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:23:10","slug":"weight-loss-jabs-could-slash-the-reliability-of-cancer-scans-putting-people-at-risk-of-misdiagnosis-concerning-research-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/184390\/","title":{"rendered":"Weight loss jabs could slash the reliability of cancer scans putting people at risk of misdiagnosis, concerning research suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Game-changing weight loss<\/a> jabs relied on by millions of slimmers and diabetics could cause certain cancer scans to be less effective, experts have suggested.<\/p>\n

The drugs, which include Mounjaro and Wegovy, have ushered in a new era in the battle against obesity, helping dieters shed up to a fifth of their bodyweight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, British researchers who assessed PET-CT scans\u2014which help diagnose and stage cancers\u2014discovered the injections detrimentally affected how tissue appeared on scans, which could be misinterpreted as potentially cancerous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It meant that patients on the\u00a0jabs \u2014 collectively known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1s \u2014 were more likely to undergo unnecessary further tests to investigate healthy tissue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Experts fear it could cause stress and uncertainty for patients and even cause delays in other treatments.<\/p>\n

It also comes just months after concerning research also suggested GLP-1 drugs could potentially interfere with breast cancer<\/a>\u00a0chemotherapy drugs.<\/p>\n

Dr Peter Strouhal, medical director at Alliance Medical \u2014 a leading provider of diagnostic imaging services in the UK \u2014 and study lead author, said: ‘We noticed unusual uptake in one of our patients on a GLP-1 agonist, which prompted a wider review across our network.<\/p>\n

‘We found that these altered patterns are increasingly common, yet there is currently no national or international guidance in the UK addressing this emerging issue.’<\/p>\n

\"British <\/p>\n

British researchers who assessed PET-CT scans\u2014which help diagnose and stage cancers\u2014discovered the injections detrimentally affected how tissue appeared on scans, which could be misinterpreted as potentially cancerous<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

In the study, researchers undertook a review of several PET-CT scans of patients who were taking the drugs, after uncovering the anomaly with one patient.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A PET-CT scan combines a CT scan and a PET scan. It uses a\u00a0mildly radioactive liquid, known medically as a radioactive tracer, to show\u00a0areas of your body where cells are more active than normal.<\/p>\n

A higher level of metabolic activity \u2014 and concentration of tracer on the scan \u2014 could signal potentially cancerous activity which appears as brighter spots.<\/p>\n

The researchers found ‘several’ patterns of tracer on the scans among GLP-1 users that were ‘atypical’ and ‘could be misinterpreted’ as hot spots, or potentially cancerous areas.<\/p>\n

Hot spot areas, with high levels of tracer, do not always signal cancer and could be a sign of other conditions such as infections or inflammation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Strouhal said:\u00a0‘Recognising the characteristic uptake associated with GLP-1 agonists helps avoid unnecessary anxiety and interventions, ensuring patients receive the right care, at the right time, without detours or doubt.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, further research involving more data is vital to prove this is the case, researchers said, before recommendations are made to alter PET-CT scan guidelines for all weight loss jab users.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, medical teams should carefully consider a patient’s medical history when interpreting scan results, they added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

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The research will be presented in full on October 8 at the\u00a0Annual\u00a0Congress<\/a> of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine in Barcelona.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes as research late last year found<\/a> GLP-1 drugs could potentially interfere with breast cancer<\/a>\u00a0chemotherapy drugs.<\/p>\n

In the US study, hundreds of women with early-stage triple negative breast cancer were followed throughout and after treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few dozen (25) were already taking GLP-1s alongside other diabetes<\/a> drugs and continued to do so while having cancer treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tests two years later showed just 28 per cent of the women on GLP-1s responded fully to the cancer therapies, and were clear of cancer.<\/p>\n

More than twice as many \u2014 63 per cent \u2014 of those not on GLP-1s were cancer free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The researchers also discovered\u00a0GLP-1s had infiltrated tumour cells and\u00a0immune cells in samples taken from the patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Bethania Santos, an oncologist and researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who presented the study at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, said: ‘Use of GLP-1 use may need to be carefully considered during breast cancer therapy.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, experts at the time suggested the weight loss drugs themselves may not have decreased the effectiveness of chemotherapy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rather, people who have advanced diabetes requiring multiple medications are at increased risk for breast cancer recurrence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The study, they said, did not prove whether weight loss drugs help or hurt the effectiveness of cancer therapy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game-changing weight loss jabs relied on by millions of slimmers and diabetics could cause certain cancer scans to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97,59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-184390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}