About The Study: A stepped-care model, with palliative care visits occurring only at key points in patients’ cancer trajectories and using a decrement in quality of life to trigger more intensive palliative care exposure, resulted in fewer palliative care visits without diminishing the benefits for patients’ quality of life. While stepped palliative care was associated with fewer days in hospice, it is a more scalable way to deliver early palliative care to enhance patient-reported outcomes.   Quote from corresponding author Jennifer S. Temel, M.D.: “This study demonstrates that early palliative ...

BOSTON – A new study led by investigators from Mass General Cancer Center, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, reveals the effectiveness of more scalable ways of delivering palliative care to patients with advanced lung cancer. The findings were highlighted at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting and are published in JAMA. The study, led by Jennifer S. Temel, MD of the Mass General Cancer Center, assessed the effectiveness of stepped palliative care, in which all patients receive palliative care for their condition, but with a minimum of required contact with a specialty-trained clinician. ...

Berlin, Germany:  Differences in socioeconomic status (SES) are known to be linked to differences in the risk of developing disease. While people with lower SES are more likely to develop complex diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, those with a higher SES are at increased risk of developing certain types of cancer. Using biobank and national register data, researchers from Finland have now found that people with lower SES (educational achievement and occupation) have a greater genetic susceptibility to develop many other complex diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lung cancer, depression, and alcohol ...

CHICAGO – While CAR T cell therapy has revolutionized treatment for many blood cancers, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), many patients who receive CAR T cell therapy do not experience a long-term remission. For those whose cancers return or become resistant after CAR T cell therapy, the prognosis is poor, with few options left. A new “armored” form of CAR T cell therapy, developed by Carl June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University ...

BOSTON—People who have had type 1 diabetes for more than 50 years without kidney complications may still be at substantial risk for heart disease, despite excellent control of blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, according to a study presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. Heart disease is a major cause of death in people with type 1 diabetes, especially in those who develop kidney complications from diabetes. “As people with type 1 diabetes live longer due to improved medical care, a substantial proportion of these patients survive without kidney complications, but are still at high risk for heart ...

BOSTON—Medications for type 2 diabetes and obesity known as GLP-1 receptor agonists may lower the risk of acute pancreatitis recurrence in people with obesity and those with type 2 diabetes, according to a study presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. Doctors have been cautious about prescribing these medications in patients with a history of pancreatitis due to the potential risk of worsening the condition – a warning that is included in prescribing information, said lead researcher Mahmoud Nassar, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Medicine ...

BOSTON—Having medical conditions linked to obesity does not impact the total weight loss achieved with the anti-obesity medication tirzepatide, according to an industry-supported study being presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass.  Obesity causes or worsens over 200 diseases. It has been widely believed that when patients suffer multiple medical problems, they are not able to lose as much weight as those without medical issues. The new study, funded by tirzepatide maker Eli Lilly Inc., was designed to see if having more obesity-associated ...

BOSTON—People under age 50 have a greater risk for heart attack or stroke if they’ve lived with obesity for 10 years, according to industry-sponsored research being presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “It is well established that people who have excess weight at any point in time have a greater risk of heart attacks and strokes. What was not known was whether it matters for how long someone has been exposed to excess weight,” said Alexander Turchin, M.D., M.S., Director of Quality at the Division of Endocrinology at Brigham & Women’s ...

BOSTON—One year after a prediabetes diagnosis, Asians were more likely to develop diabetes mellitus whereas Black patients were more likely to remain in prediabetes range, highlighting racial disparities in diabetes prevention, according to data presented at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “Every year a small proportion of patients with prediabetes will progress to diabetes mellitus with some proportion of patients reverting to normal glucose levels,” said Ewelina Niedzialkowska, M.D., an internal medicine resident at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital, in Royal Oak, Mich. “While diet, lifestyle ...

BOSTON—The type of estrogen in hormonal birth control may influence anxiety-like behaviors, according to data presented by Abigail Hegwood, M.S., from the Prakapenka Lab at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “It is plausible that estrogen type is a key player in mood or cognitive related side effects of hormone-based contraceptive use,” said Alesia Prakapenka, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Biomedical Sciences program at Midwestern University in Downers Grove, Ill. According to the CDC, 12.6% of women in the United States between the ages of 15 and 49 reported using oral contraceptives from ...

In an era where robotics are increasingly becoming a part of everyday life, a significant breakthrough has been made by a team of researchers at Zhe jiang University, China. Their latest creation, a wrist-inspired soft actuator capable of bidirectional torsion, promises to transform the landscape of soft robotics. The innovative design of this actuator, described in detail in the journal Cyborg Bionic Systems, is inspired by the human wrist's ability to perform complex movements. Unlike traditional robotic mechanisms that rely on rigid components, this soft actuator utilizes a magneto-pneumatic hybrid system combined with a Kresling origami structure. This design allows for an astonishing ...

Researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior at Radboud University, have developed a revolutionary method for the rapid identification of network topologies. Their new approach, detailed in a recent publication in Cyborg Bionic Systems, significantly accelerates the process of understanding complex dynamical networks, which are crucial in numerous applications ranging from power grids to transportation systems. The innovative method, named Finite-Time Topology Identification of Delayed Complex Dynamical Networks (FT-TIDCN), leverages finite-time stability ...

BOSTON—Prediabetes increases the risk of dying before age 75, particularly due to heart disease, kidney disease and acute diabetic complications, according to a new study presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “Prediabetes is well known to increase the risk of developing diabetes; however, information about other complications of prediabetes in Latin America was limited before this study,” said study researcher Carlos Fermin-Martinez, M.D., of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico. He is also with the National Institute of Geriatrics in Mexico ...

BOSTON—Semaglutide improved taste sensitivity, changed gene expression in the tongue that’s responsible for taste perception, and changed the brain’s response to sweet tastes, according to research presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “People with obesity often perceive tastes less ‘intensely,’ and they have an inherently elevated desire for sweet and energy-dense food,” said Mojca Jensterle Sever, Ph.D., of the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Jensterle Sever and colleagues designed a proof-of-concept study on the impact of GLP-1 ...

BOSTON—People of color and those who experience social vulnerability are more likely to experience worse glycemic control than their white counterparts, according to research presented Sunday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “As of 2021, 29.7 million people were living with diabetes, contributing to significant morbidity across the population. Despite advances in diabetic care, marginalized populations bear an increased burden of diabetic complications,” said study author Jennifer Tich, M.D., from Internal Medicine-Pediatrics R3 at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y. Tich and colleagues identified ...

BOSTON—Testosterone appears protective against developing type 2 diabetes in men who are overweight or obese and under age 65, but not in men over that age, according to a study presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “A low blood testosterone concentration is an independent risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes, and high levels of testosterone appear protective against the development of type 2 diabetes,” said lead researcher ...

About The Study: This study found that comparable levels of sensitivity and specificity as reported for the multitarget stool RNA (mt-sRNA) test in the colorectal cancer (CRC)-PREVENT study could be achieved by lowering the fecal immunochemical test positivity threshold, without additional mt-sRNA testing. The findings are similar to previous observations for multitarget stool DNA testing. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Hermann Brenner, M.D., M.P.H., email h.brenner@dkfz.de. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

A groundbreaking study from Tsinghua University in collaboration with Imperial College London has unveiled a novel technique that significantly enhances brain-computer interface (BCI) systems by integrating brain-to-brain interactions among users. This innovative approach, detailed in a new study published in the journal Cyborg Bionic Systems, demonstrates the potential for improved BCI performance in applications such as rehabilitation and multitasking devices. The research, led by Dr. Tianyu Jia and a team of interdisciplinary scientists, explored the effects of social interactions, ...

BOSTON—Health insurance companies often deny coverage for new medications that treat children and teens with obesity and type 2 diabetes, meaning many patients who need treatment are unable to afford it, according to a study presented at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. The medications, called GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP1Ra), are often denied despite being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, especially if children do not have type 2 diabetes, the researchers found. GLP1Ra drugs include liraglutide (Victoza, Saxenda). The researchers ...

BOSTON—Stress during childhood is associated with earlier substance use in male and female adolescents, according to a study presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. Traumatic events may increase substance use risk for males, while environmental stress and early puberty may increase the risk for females, the researchers found. Early life stress is children’s experiences of abuse, neglect and conflict. Approximately 20% of adolescents in the United States have experienced early life stress at some point, and these experiences ...

BOSTON—Children who are sedentary for more than six waking hours a day have a significantly increased risk of severe fatty liver disease and liver cirrhosis by young adulthood, a new study finds. The research findings will be presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass and published in Nature’s npj Gut and Liver. “We found that this relationship between sedentariness and liver damage is likely causal,” said lead researcher Prof. Andrew Agbaje, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., of the University of Eastern Finland ...

WASHINGTON --- Clinicians at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center reported promising preliminary findings based on outcomes in the first six patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer enrolled in a phase 2 clinical trial of the experimental drug BXCL701 in combination with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda).  Immunotherapy drugs alone have not shown to be responsive to pancreatic cancer.    The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2024 annual meeting in Chicago on June 1, 2024 (LBA4132). BXCL701, made by BioXcel Therapeutics, is ...

Boston – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers are leading 3 separate studies with encouraging results in treating patients with central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma, breast cancer, and glioblastoma. The studies support future research in these potential breakthroughs where treatment options may be limited. The research teams will present their findings at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, May 31-June 4, 2024. ASCO is the world’s largest clinical cancer research meeting, attracting more than 30,000 global oncology professionals. These findings are among more than 80 studies presented at ASCO that ...

An Oregon-based program that monitors social media use may have helped deter more than 150 youth suicide attempts in the five years it’s operated, reports a new study published online today in the journal Psychiatric Services. Staff with Lines for Life, a nonprofit that operates mental health crisis support services, and researchers at Oregon Health & Science University collaborated to closely document interventions by the Safe Social Spaces program, launched in 2019 by Lines for Life. The study’s senior author said it’s an example of meeting people where they are. “Community engagement is critical,” said Alan Teo, M.D., M.S., associate professor of ...

One of Earth’s most consequential bursts of biodiversity—a 30-million-year period of explosive evolutionary changes spawning innumerable new species—may have the most modest of creatures to thank for the vital stage in life’s history: worms.  The digging and burrowing of prehistoric worms and other invertebrates along ocean bottoms sparked a chain of events that released oxygen into the ocean and atmosphere and helped kick-start what is known as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, roughly 480 million years ago, according ...