Can Ozempic prevent or treat cancer? It's way too soon to say, an expert cautions

In the weeks around the 2026 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, my phone kept buzzing with alerts about GLP-1 drugs and cancer. The headlines were everywhere — from NPR and The Washington Post to Substack and heated exchanges on social media — all circling the same claim: Ozempic might lower the risk of cancer.

Behind those headlines is a real wave of studies, involving millions of patients. I'm a physician and clinical epidemiologist, and my team and I desig...