If you\u2019ve ever thought about taking GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, you might have been scared off by the possibility of thyroid cancer. Recent research, however, finds that this potential danger could actually be non-existent.<\/p>\n
Doctors at the Clayman Thyroid Center in Florida examined the medical literature on GLP-1 use and thyroid cancer. They failed to find any concrete data, at least in humans, pointing to a causative link between the two. That said, people with a family history of a specific, rare type of thyroid cancer should still avoid GLP-1 drugs, the researchers say, echoing the recommendation from the Food and Drug Administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best available human evidence does not show that GLP-1 receptor agonists cause common thyroid cancers or even has an effect if you have developed a thyroid cancer,\u201d they wrote in a white paper released<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n GLP-1s and thyroid cancer <\/p>\n GLP-1s have been around for two decades, though it\u2019s only in the last few years that newer drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) have become effective front-line treatments for obesity.<\/p>\n These drugs are known to commonly cause gastrointestinal side-effects like nausea, diarrhea and constipation. But they\u2019ve also long carried a black box warning about the possible risk of thyroid cancer, specifically medullary thyroid cancer (MTC)<\/a>. The rationale for including this warning was largely based on rodent studies of GLP-1s, however. And that\u2019s led scientists to since examine whether the same pattern can be found in people who take these drugs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Clayman researchers analyzed data from clinical trials, adverse event reports, and large studies of real-world patients. All in all, they found next to nothing suggesting that GLP-1 use is linked to a genuinely higher rate of thyroid cancer. Some studies did find that GLP-1 users are more often diagnosed with these cancers (or unusual nodules that could become cancerous), but this is probably due to something known as detection bias, the researchers say.<\/p>\n People taking GLP-1 drugs are more likely to see their doctors regularly and\/or receive thyroid cancer screening, and this higher level of surveillance can then result in more diagnosed cancers, rather than any effect of the drug. When studies have tried to account<\/a> for this bias, such as looking at diagnosis rates soon after starting GLP-1s (before the drug could realistically spark a new cancer), they\u2019ve largely found no evidence of a thyroid cancer link.<\/p>\n