Research News

Asfand Yar Cheema, MD, a resident physician at Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital, was honored at the 2025 Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) annual meeting for his research into GLP-1 receptor agonists and their potential use in preventing or slowing blood cancer progression. 

His research, which ranked second out of the conference’s 400 presentations, asked questions about one of medicine’s hottest topics — GLP-1 receptor agonists — and whether they might benefit patients with polycythemia vera (PV), and  Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). These conditions aren’t usually treated with GLP-1s, but Dr. Cheema believed the drugs might offer unexpected benefits based on patterns he saw in his own patients who were already on disease-specific medications. 

“Several of our patients were already on GLP-1 receptor agonists for diabetes or obesity,” he says. “Beyond their metabolic benefits, these agents have shown potent anti-inflammatory effects and reduce oxidative stress. These factors are known to drive DNA damage, clonal evolution and disease progression, which could in turn have important implications in helping to prevent PV from turning into a more serious bone marrow disease or to stop MDS from becoming leukemia.” 

He sought to prove his clinical observations in the research setting with the mentorship and support of hematologic oncologist Jaroslaw Maciejewski, MD, PhD, and assistant professor Valeria Visconte, PhD. 

Together, the team analyzed publicly available health data from almost 130,000 individuals with MDS.   They found that individuals who were already taking GLP-1 receptor agonists at the time of diagnosis were less likely to transform to more serious forms of cancer. Individuals with PV on GLP-1 agonists were less likely to develop serious symptoms like thrombosis and had decreased odds of disease-related hospitalization and ICU admission. 

Dr. Cheema’s work was honored with the 2nd Best Scientific Abstract Award (where he won first runner up), a SOHO Young Investigator Award, and a Travel Grant. Despite the recognition his research received at SOHO 2025, Dr. Cheema cautions that his findings still need to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. 

“We’re careful to tell patients that GLP-1 receptor agonists should be used for approved indications (type 2 diabetes or obesity) until we have stronger evidence in clinical trials or prospective studies,” he says. 

The team is now taking steps to understand how GLP-1 receptor agonists improve PV and MDS outcomes on a molecular level.  

"PV and MDS are blood disorders that start in the bone marrow with cells called myeloid cells. This raised another important question,” Dr. Cheema says. “Are these medications helping directly by affecting the blood-forming cells, or indirectly by reducing inflammation and stress in the body? We are exploring this question further.”  

They are also exploring how these drugs may benefit other forms of blood cancers and plan to define optimal dosing, duration and patient selection criteria in this specific disease cohort with other disease specific drugs. They hope to publish and build upon their research soon.