The Wild and Crazy Science Around How GLP-1’s Are Reducing Cancer Risk, Improving Remission Rates, and Supporting Angiogenesis with Dr. William Li

William Li (0:00)

Some of the things that are going on now, including the GLP-1 news, is some of the most astonishing jaw-dropping information that I've seen as a cancer researcher in the last decade.

Dhru Purohit (0:10)

What is going on exactly with the intersection of these GLP-1 drugs and cancer?

William Li (0:15)

Those people who were taking GLP-1 actually had a substantially lower risk of having their cancer spread. Lung cancer, 45% less risk of metastasis. Breast cancer who had taken GLP-1, 50% less chance of spread. Liver cancer decreased spread by 33%.

That was in people who already had cancer. We don't have drugs that can do this. It was another study that was done looking at people who didn't have cancer. Those women taking GLP-1 had a 30% reduction in having breast cancer. Wow, is there a preventative aspect as well?

Dhru Purohit (0:50)

What are a few things that I should be paying attention to? You know, if I want to reduce my risk of cancer.

SPEAKER_3 (0:54)

Joining us today is Dr. William Li, an internationally renowned physician, scientist and New York Times bestselling author. In this episode, he breaks down the cutting edge research on how GLP-1s may help reduce cancer risk, influence cancer cells and potentially lower the risk of cancer recurrence and metastasis.

Dhru Purohit (1:10)

Dr. William Li, welcome back to the podcast. When I was thinking about today's episode, I thought there are so many advancements when it comes to this world of cancer. And at the same time, cancer historically and today is ranking amongst the scariest diseases that somebody could get. And I couldn't think of somebody better to have on the show to talk about the intersection of new and exciting drugs, including GLPs, separating fact from fiction, the tried and true lifestyle aspects that we know and that you've been talking about in this podcast for years that help us reduce our risk of cancer. Also just how you as an individual and a doctor and human being would think about these tough questions that people would be navigating. Like if I found out that I had cancer today, what would I do? What are things that you're doing practically in your life?

Like are you doing some of these screening tests? So those are the things we're going to jump into today. And first and foremost, I want to say thank you for your work. And it's a pleasure to have you here.

William Li (2:14)

Always a pleasure to have this conversation. I think, you know, one of the things that your show does, head and shoulders above many podcasts, is to bring out exciting information presented in a very responsible, evidence-based way. So I think this topic is one that requires that because of the fear factor of cancer, because of a lot of misinformation that is easy to interpret out there as something that's meaningful. And also because cancer is a frontier that is yielding to science. And that's what I have been doing for my whole career as a researcher, including a cancer researchers, is figuring out how do we advance the frontiers using the science and not just making incremental advancement. I've always been interested in how do we leapfrog forward? Where are the big advances gonna be made?

And frankly, how do we break the glass ceiling of cancer? Because it's not just a few decades of fear. We're talking about tens of thousands of years where people have recognized cancer as a disease. So where are we today that is different than where we were yesterday or last year or 10 years ago? This is one of the fastest moving areas of medicine. And with all the distressing things that are happening in the world, I would tell you I wake up every single day to new information, new data, new news that makes me feel confident that we are finally getting on top of and making progress in the fight against cancer.

Dhru Purohit (3:56)

Yeah, you're optimistic. You feel it through and through because you see where things are going. And that's why we want you on here today. And I want to start off with, there's been a lot of headlines recently. I've written about some of them in my newsletter. My audience has seen them on different news shows that are there. It's been a lot of headlines recently that there may be something going on with GLP-1 drugs or any of the GLP drugs that are out there and cancer.

In particular, there's been some, what I understand to be, observational studies that people who have been taking GLP drugs have seemed to either be beating cancer quicker or potentially even lowering their risk. Give us a lay of the land of some of these headlines that are out there and then help us understand what is going on exactly with the intersection of these GLP-1 drugs and cancer. A lot of people thought, okay, if they do help, maybe it's because they reduce your overall level of obesity, and definitely being obese over the long haul increases your risk of cancer. But it seems like there's more that's going on to the story.