Despite previous excitement around a potential link between GLP-1 drugs and a reduced risk of cancer, new research suggests the popular medications “probably have little or no effect” on a person’s risk of developing one of the 13 obesity-related cancers.

The findings, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine , may seem counterintuitive, said co-author Dr. Cho-Han Chiang, who conducted the study earlier this year as an internal medicine resident at Mount Auburn Hospital, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“GLP-1 can make people lose weight , and so, if obesity increases the risk of cancer, then, hypothetically speaking, losing weight through GLP-1 may actually reduce the risk of developing cancer,” said Chiang, now a medical oncology

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