FAT jabs such as Ozempic and Wegovy could be “game changers” in tackling bowel cancer within five years, researchers have claimed
Evidence has already shown that injections of the weight-loss drugs can cut risk by “reducing inflammation” and improving metabolism.
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Professors Tim Spector and Sarah Berry of King’s College London are now heading a five-year £20million project into the link between bacteria living in the gut — called the microbiome — and colorectal cancers.
It will include clinical trials to assess whether weight-loss jabs can lower cancer risks.
The professors wrote: “It’s thought that if certain bacteria are present in the microbiome you may be more likely to develop the disease.”
“If we can firm this up, it’s possible that doctors could work out from a stool sample whether you are at risk of tumours later on.”
They told the Mail on Sunday: “We don’t have answers yet, but within five years we might. It could be game changing.”
Strictly dancer Amy Dowden, 33, and Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek, 47, are among those under-50 to be diagnosed with bowel cancer in the past two years.
“Those born in 1990 – who are in their mid-30s today – are nearly two and a half times more likely to get bowel cancer than someone born in 1950,” Profs Spector and Berry wrote.
More than 100 scientists will be involved in their five-year research project.
It has been funded by Cancer Research UK and the Bowelbabe Fund, set up by cancer campaigner and Sun columnist Dame Deborah James before her death aged 40 in 2022.
