EDIT - Just wanted to note that the cancer thing has only been seen in rats. Not humans. After 20 years we'd probably have seen it by now.
Somebody very near and dear to me was diagnosed with thyroid cancer ten years ago, and now has no thyroid. She's hardly inconvenienced by it & hasn't even gained any weight since then. Just gotta remember to take those T4 tablets in the morning, is all.
Point is: If you weigh in the balance [lives saved or QALY gained due to GLP agonist administration] vs. [lives lost or QALY lost due to thyroid cancer secondary to GLP agonist administration], it's not even going to be remotely close. "Lives saved" will probably win by an enormous margin, maybe a factor of twenty or so.
If GLP-1 inhibitors get people screened for thyroid cancers more frequently, or lead to improved treatments for thyroid cancer, they will almost certainly lead to a reduction in thyroid cancer deaths -- even if, as some surmise, they are responsible for an increase in thyroid cancer cases. Even without this effect, if you balance [QALY lost] versus [QALY gained] GLP-1 agonists should come out so far ahead that it's almost laughable.
In any case, I believe it is wise to talk about these things openly and without fear.
> agonist
nit: these are not the same
Also, not all thyroid cancers are created equally (like papillary vs medullary), not every one taking GLP-1 RAs are morbidly obese, etc.
> Also, not all thyroid cancers are created equally (like papillary vs medullary)
Granted, but how is this relevant? I've heard that those drugs may -- this is still, as yet, uncertain -- increase the likelihood of follicular thyroid cancer, which is a very weak type. I have not heard that they increase one's likelihood of coming down with the anaplastic variant. (The only truly deadly one, but quite rare.) If caught early enough, papillary, follicular, and medullary are all easily treatable and indeed curable.
> not every one taking GLP-1 RAs are morbidly obese
Again, sure, but how is it relevant?
It is common to see this repeated, but there is some literature that correlates thyroid cancer in humans with usage of GLP-1 agonists.
One example (2023): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36356111/
I suppose it helps to emphasize that there are trade offs with all drugs, and that you'll need to work with your doctor to adapt a program suited to your own risk tolerance.
For instance, my impression is that lung cancer rates only really become strongly pronounced — in the sense of being statistically detectable in the small population sizes you find in clinical studies, rather than the entire US population — after like 15 years of smoking. (Correct me if I’m wrong.)