Improvements in cancer prevention and screening have averted more deaths from five cancer types combined over the past 45 years than treatment advances, according to a modeling study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, published Dec. 5, 2024, in JAMA Oncology, looked at deaths from breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer that were averted by the combination of prevention, screening, and treatment advances. The researchers focused on these five cancers because they are among the most common causes of cancer deaths and strategies exist for their prevention, early detection, and/or treatment. In recent years, these five cancers have made up nearly half of all new cancer diagnoses and deaths.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found previously undetected cancers in 48.6% of pregnant people who had abnormal results for prenatal cell-free DNA (cfDNA) testing used to screen for chromosomal disorders in the fetus. Cancers included colorectal, breast, lung and pancreatic cancers, as well as lymphoma, cholangiocarcinoma and renal carcinoma. The screening test analyzes placental DNA fragments circulating in the maternal bloodstream to identify an extra chromosome or to determine the baby’s sex. The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Children of mothers who took certain antiseizure medications while pregnant do not have worse neurodevelopmental outcomes at age 6, according to a long-running study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study was published in JAMA Neurology.

You may have heard sleep described as something of a magic pill for the body. With the right amount, timing, and quality, it can work wonders - strengthen the immune system, improve blood sugar, even decrease the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Sleep differences have been reported for some time in men and women, but it is not well known whether the characteristics of sleep serve different functions in one gender over the other, especially as it relates to the heart. New research seeks answers.

When Tom Ortiz was diagnosed with HIV more than 30 years ago, he felt like he was handed a death sentence.

“In the early days, if AIDS didn’t kill you a heart attack would,” said Ortiz, a community health worker in Ohio. “It was either AIDS or a cardiovascular event.”

As a result, Ortiz got his affairs in order. “When I first acquired the disease, nobody made it very far,” he said. “A year [to live] was a long time.”