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GLP1 receptor agonists are widely used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, and a study by University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) researchers in the journal Endocrine-Related Cancer examines their role in prostate cancer.

The study’s principal investigator, Jordan Vellky, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Pathology Professor Donald Vander Griend, PhD, who co-leads the University of Illinois Cancer Center’s Prostate Cancer Working Group.

Metabolic disorders and their treatment are common among those with prostate cancer. Therefore, understanding the effects of GLP1R agonists (e.g. semaglutide, brand name Ozempic) in prostate cells is critical to understand its effects and potential impacts on prostate cancer outcomes. 

Data in the study support a direct anti-cancer role for GLP1R agonism in advanced prostate cancer.

“Future studies should assess the effects of systemic GLP1R agonism at a tissue-specific level to potentially expose new avenues of therapeutic intervention surrounding this exciting new class of medications,” the study concludes.

Other Cancer Center study authors include Robert Sargis, MD, PhD, a member of the Cancer Biology Research Program; Charles Gaber, PhD, a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program; and Natalie Reizine, MD, a physician-scientist who treats patients with prostate cancer at UI Healthand is a member of the Translational Oncology Research Program. Additionally, Mark Maienschein-Cline, PhD, is Director of the Cancer Bioinformatics Shared Resource, and Vander Griend is Associate Director for Shared Resources at the Cancer Center. Other study authors are in the Vander Griend Lab and the Department of Pathology.