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New research is raising an intriguing question in health care: could the same drugs millions of Americans take for weight loss and diabetes also help them survive longer after a serious diagnosis?
A large study from Ontada, McKesson’s real-world data division, found that patients who used GLP-1 receptor agonists had a notably lower death rate than those who didn’t. Researchers presented the findings at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, and the results have caught the attention of specialists nationwide.
Here’s what the study looked at. The team pulled electronic health records from iKnowMed, a database within The US Oncology Network. That’s one of the largest community-based treatment networks in the country. They reviewed records for 472,701 adults diagnosed with six common conditions, including tumors of the breast, colon, lung, prostate, liver, and kidney, between January 2021 and October 2024.
Out of that massive group, only 1,121 patients had a GLP-1 prescription on file. So for the main survival analysis, researchers matched 418 GLP-1 users with 3,476 similar patients who weren’t taking the drugs. They matched based on age, health history, and other key factors to keep the comparison fair.
A few patterns stood out right away. GLP-1 users tended to be younger, with a median age of 63 compared to 68 in the non-user group. They also had much higher obesity rates, which makes sense given what these drugs are approved for. Breast tumors were the most common diagnosis in both groups, followed by prostate.
Most patients in the study took semaglutide, the drug sold as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss. It made up 55% of prescriptions. Tirzepatide, known by the brand name Zepbound, accounted for another 28%. Both drugs work by mimicking a natural hormone that helps regulate blood sugar and appetite. Neither one is FDA-approved for the purpose researchers were studying here, and doctors weren’t prescribing them for that. Patients were simply taking them for diabetes or weight management.
Now, for the numbers that matter most. Researchers ran three separate statistical models to check the strength of the survival link. In the simplest, unadjusted comparison, GLP-1 users had a 55% lower risk of death, translating to a hazard ratio of 0.45. Once the team adjusted for factors like age, sex, race, geography, BMI, and disease stage, the benefit narrowed somewhat but still held strong at a hazard ratio of 0.63. A third model, using propensity score matching, landed at 0.66.
That consistency across three different approaches is what gave researchers confidence they were seeing something real, not just statistical noise.
Still, lead researcher Jessica Paulus was quick to flag the study’s limitations. Because the data came from specialty records, it likely missed a lot of GLP-1 use. Many patients get these prescriptions from primary care doctors or telehealth services, not their specialists. That means the actual numbers could look different with more complete data.
There’s also the question of who tends to start these medications in the first place. Healthier patients, ones who feel well enough to manage a new prescription and stick with it, may simply have better outcomes overall, regardless of the drug itself. Researchers ran additional testing to gauge how much this kind of bias could be skewing results, and the threshold needed to fully explain away the finding turned out to be fairly high.
Interestingly, this isn’t an isolated finding. A separate study presented at the same meeting, this one from Cleveland Clinic, found that GLP-1 drugs were linked to slower disease progression across several tumor types tied to obesity. Together, the two studies add momentum to a growing body of clinical trials exploring whether these drugs offer benefits beyond blood sugar and weight control.
That said, nobody’s suggesting patients should start taking Ozempic or Wegovy just for potential survival benefits. These drugs still aren’t FDA-approved for that use, and researchers stress that real answers will require randomized trials, not just observational data. Insurance coverage remains another hurdle, since many payers already balk at the cost of GLP-1 drugs for approved uses.
For now, doctors recommend sticking to established guidelines. If you’re managing diabetes or obesity alongside a serious diagnosis, talk to both your specialist and primary care provider before making any changes. With roughly one in eight Americans now using GLP-1 medications, larger and more definitive studies are likely just around the corner.
