News by Subject Medicine & Health

Young cancer patients at the crossroads of childhood and adulthood seem to be stuck in a treatment impasse. A study to be presented at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich, has highlighted the existence of barriers to the inclusion of 12 to 25-year-olds in both adult and paediatric early phase clinical trials, suggesting a need for more tailored approaches to give this patient population better access to therapeutic innovation.

Results from a phase 3 clinical trial indicate that patients who have not benefited from standard therapy for ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by back pain and sacroiliac-joint damage, may have another treatment option in the biologic drug ixekizumab.

Mount Sinai Scientists developed a novel way to barcode and track different CRISPRs by utilizing synthetic proteins built from combinations of smaller proteins, called epitopes. By being able to mark each CRISPR with a unique identifier, the protein barcodes, or Pro-Codes for short, enable hundreds of CRISPRs to be used together to knockout a multitude of genes.

In a commentary published by the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Sun-Young Ahn, M.D., and Marva Moxey-Mims, M.D., explain that pediatric chronic kidney disease can contribute to growth failure, developmental and neurocognitive defects, and impaired cardiovascular health.

A new Florida State University College of Medicine study in mice produced results that suggest nicotine exposure in men could lead to cognitive deficits in their children and grandchildren. Further studies will be required to know if the same outcomes seen in mice would apply to humans.

Including exercise or sport as part of cancer care can significantly improve symptom management, quality of life and fitness during and after treatment, French researchers have concluded in two presentations to be reported at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich. Even among patients at highest risk of poor quality of life, exercise can make a difference.

Most people with lung cancer are unaware of the benefits of regular exercise, yet new data show it can significantly reduce fatigue and improve well being. Results of two studies to be presented at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich underline the value of exercise, including in patients with advanced or metastatic lung cancer.

Social vulnerability showed to be a major limitation to participation in cancer screening for four tumors types - breast, cervical, colorectal and lung -- according to the French nationwide observational survey, EDIFICE 6. Also, a disbelief in cancer test efficacy among target populations was highlighted as new indicator of the non-uptake of screening, according to results to be presented at the ESMO 2018 Congress.

Air pollution in the US has decreased since about 1990, and a new study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill now shows that this air quality improvement has brought substantial public health benefits. The study, published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, found that deaths related to air pollution were nearly halved between 1990 and 2010.

Immunotherapy has been a major breakthrough in oncology -- but little is known about its safety for HIV-positive cancer patients. A study to be presented at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich has now provided data to suggest that treatment with PD-1/PD-L-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors, which target the very system affected by the HIV virus, is feasible in this patient population for whom cancer is currently one of the principal cause of mortality.