GLP1 Receptor Agonist Use Does Not Seem to Increase Risk for Thyroid Cancer

WEDNESDAY, April 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) receptor agonist use does not appear to be associated with an increased risk for thyroid cancer, according to a study published online April 10 in The BMJ.

Björn Pasternak, M.D., Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues examined whether use of a GLP1 receptor agonist is associated with an increased risk for thyroid cancer in a Scandinavian cohort study in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden from 2007 to 2021. Patients who initiated GLP1 receptor agonist treatment were compared to those who started dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) inhibitor treatment and those who started sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor treatment.

The researchers found that 76 of 145,410 patients treated with GLP1 receptor agonists and 184 of 291,667 patients treated with DPP4 inhibitors developed thyroid cancer (incidence rates, 1.33 and 1.46 events per 10,000 person-years, respectively). There was no association observed for GLP1 receptor agonist use with an increased risk for thyroid cancer (hazard ratio, 0.93; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.66 to 1.31). For medullary thyroid cancer, the hazard ratio was 1.19 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.37 to 3.86). The hazard ratio for thyroid cancer comparing the GLP1 receptor agonist group with the SGLT2 inhibitor group was 1.16 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.65 to 2.05).

"Findings were neutral, but less precise for specific subtypes of thyroid cancer, including medullary thyroid cancer, and robust in several additional analyses, including when an alternative comparator group was used," the authors write. "However, the study cannot exclude a small increase in risk."

One author disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry; the study was partially funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

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