A study has revealed why some patients don’t respond to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy for solid cancer tumours and identifies a new combination treatment. Publishing in Nature Immunology, the international group of experts led by scientists at Newcastle University, UK has identified the biological mechanisms leading to a revolution in our understanding of ICB resistance. They identify a new combination strategy for treating ICB resistant metastatic skin cancers and suggest  that this can also be of benefit in the immunotherapy treatment of other solid cancers. Dr Shoba Amarnath, Reader in Immune Regulation at Newcastle University led the research. ...

As the global population ages, the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) continues to rise. But the molecular mechanisms behind the deterioration of brain cells have remained elusive. Now, a new study by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers has found that old neurons have unique defects resulting from molecular stress that make them especially vulnerable to neurodegeneration. “Aging ...

When cancer spreads from a primary tumor to new sites throughout the body, it undergoes changes that increase its genetic complexity. A new study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) provides fresh insights about how cancers evolve when they metastasize — insights that could aid in developing strategies to improve the effectiveness of treatment. The team — led by collaborators Dr. Luc Morris, a surgeon and cancer genetics research lab director at MSK, Dr. Xi Kathy Zhou, a professor of research in population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Dr. Chaitanya Bandlamudi, a cancer genomics researcher at MSK — ...

Intensive exercise- and sport changes the heart of an athlete. Research led by Amsterdam UMC shows that the hearts of female athletes have different characteristics than those of male athletes. Whereas a thickening in combination with a dilation of the heart muscle is characteristic in male top athletes, dilation of the heart chambers is mainly seen in female elite athletes. An important observation that can help doctors to better distinguish between normal sports-related changes and possible heart disease ...

The Association of ERC Grantees (AERG) expresses grave concern over the future of fundamental research in Europe. It released a statement in which it urges European leaders to protect fundamental science by increasing the autonomy of the European Research Council (ERC). Current discussions of the successor framework programme to Horizon Europe suggest it will be “tightly connected” to a European Competitiveness Fund. This greatly endangers the ERC’s autonomy and thus its mission. As behavioural scientist  Karin Roelofs, professor of ...

A recent randomized controlled trial assessed the benefits of a group-based intervention that fosters communication and coping skills in a culturally tailored way for Latina breast cancer survivors and their caregivers. The results are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. For the trial, investigators randomized 136 Latina breast cancer survivors and 136 caregivers from Washington, D.C., New York, NY, and San Jose, CA, to participate in an 8-session coping and ...

by Dr Mary Elizabeth Livingston In my recently published paper ‘My love affair with the sea’ I describe how from a very early age I fell in love with the sea and pursued that love throughout my younger years and at university, ending up with a 40-year career as a fisheries scientist. Political changes on how women were perceived in the workplace benefitted me and I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to work in a job that has taken me to many parts of the globe and given me such a purposeful way of contributing to human and ecological wellbeing. I am originally from the UK but moved to New Zealand as a post-graduate ...

Rapid advances in cancer treatment have benefitted many people, but urgent change is needed in Canada’s cancer care workforce to ensure patient care, according to an analysis published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241425. “A sea change has occurred in cancer care,” writes Dr. John Walker, an oncologist at the University of Alberta and Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton, Alberta, with coauthors. “Although improved understanding of the genetic and molecular basis of disease has resulted ...

A board game through which players use images on cards to develop and tell their own stories could be particularly appreciated among people with autism as it offers a means to explain their thoughts and feelings, a new study has shown. Dixit, an award-winning game published by the French company Libellud, invites participants to select one of 84 illustrated cards which they feel matches a title suggested by the designated storyteller. For this study, researchers asked 35 autistic participants – split into groups of between five and eight – to place a card that they felt best described autism, and then being asked to explain the reasoning ...

Research Background: Turbulence in nature refers to the complex, time-dependent, and spatially varying fluctuations that develop in fluids such as water, air, and plasma. It is a universal phenomenon that appears across a vast range of scales and systems—from atmospheric and oceanic currents on Earth, to interstellar gas in stars and galaxies, and even within jet engines and blood flow in human arteries. Turbulence is not merely chaotic; rather, it consists of an evolving hierarchy of interacting vortices, which may organize into ...

About The Study: Although phase 3 trials are often interpreted as demonstrating superiority, overall survival and quality of life (QOL), which may be the most relevant end points to patients, are uncommonly improved. To increase the meaningfulness of late-phase research, future trial designs and regulatory processes should be refocused toward overall survival and QOL improvements. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Alexander D. Sherry, MD, email alexanderdsherry@gmail.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2025.1002) Editor’s ...

Results from a new animal study suggest that microscopic plastic particles found in food and beverages may affect glucose metabolism and harm organs such as the liver. The findings raise concerns about potential health risks in people and point to the need for more research.   As plastic breaks down, it forms micro- (<5 mm) and nanoparticles (<100 nm), which can enter the food chain and end up in seafood and other foods people eat. Studies estimate that a person may ingest around 40,000 ...

A new study that followed almost 200,000 people for several decades has found that when it comes to heart health, the quality of food consumed matters as much as following a low-carbohydrate or low-fat diet. The results suggest that choosing healthy, high-quality foods is key to protecting the heart.   In the past two decades, low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets have been promoted for their potential health benefits, such as weight management and improved blood sugar and cholesterol levels. However, the impact of these diets on reducing heart disease risk has remained an ongoing debate.   “We found that what you eat on low-carb or low-fat ...

With rates of obesity and anxiety both on the rise—especially among younger Americans—new research suggests that the two conditions may be connected through interactions between the gut and the brain. The study, conducted in mice, links diet-induced obesity with anxiety-like symptoms, alterations in brain signaling and differences in gut microbes that may contribute to impaired brain functioning.   “Several studies have pointed to a link between obesity and anxiety, though it is still unclear whether obesity directly causes anxiety or if the association is influenced by societal pressures,” said Desiree ...

New research that used blood markers to measure linoleic acid levels and their relation to cardiometabolic risk adds evidence that this omega-6 fatty acid may help to lower risks for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The findings challenge claims that seed oils are harmful to cardiometabolic health.   Linoleic acid, which is found in vegetable oils—especially seed oils like soybean and corn oil—and plant foods, is the primary omega-6 fatty acid consumed in the diet.   “There has been increasing ...

CHICAGO – A dual-target CAR T cell therapy approach shows promise for slowing tumor growth in a notoriously aggressive and fast-growing brain cancer. Tumors became smaller after the experimental CAR T cell therapy in nearly two-thirds of patients. While survival data is still accumulating, several patients lived 12 months or longer after receiving the investigational therapy, which is notable given the typical survival for this patient population is less than a year.  The findings were presented today at the 2025 American Society of ...

BOSTON, June 1, 2025 – Combining standard adjuvant chemotherapy with an immune checkpoint inhibitor (atezolizumab) leads to a significant improvement in disease-free survival in a subset of patients with stage 3 colon cancer that is deficient in DNA mismatch repair (dMMR), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigator Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt and his colleagues report at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting. These results stem from the ATOMIC trial, a phase 3 multicenter, randomized, ...

BOSTON, June 1, 2025 – Patients with colon cancer who consumed an anti-inflammatory diet during a phase 3 clinical trial showed longer overall survival post-treatment compared to those on a proinflammatory diet, according to a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute analysis. Engaging in higher levels of physical activity may amplify the positive influence on survival. “One of the most common questions that patients ask is what they should do after treatment to maximally reduce their risk of cancer recurrence and improve survival,” says first author Dr. Sara Char, a clinical fellow in Hematology and Oncology at Dana-Farber ...

A large prospective, randomized clinical trial in patients with advanced breast cancer has found that the use of liquid biopsy blood tests for early detection of a treatment-resistance mutation, followed by a switch to a new type of treatment, substantially extends the period of tumor control compared to standard care. The SERENA-6 study, published June 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented concurrently at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, was conducted at multiple medical centers, principally in Europe, East Asia and the United States, including at Weill ...

June 1, 2025 — The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology announced today results from ATOMIC (A021502), a phase III trial evaluating standard chemotherapy alone or combined with atezolizumab (Tecentriq®) in treating patients who have surgically resected stage III colon cancer and deficient deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) mismatch repair (dMMR). The study, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and conducted in partnership with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically ...

Late-breaking abstract featured at ASCO 2025 ROCHESTER, Minn. — Colon cancer is the third most prevalent form of cancer in the U.S., and while screening has helped detect and prevent colon cancer from spreading, major advancements in treating colon cancer have lagged. Now, new research led by Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center found that adding immunotherapy to chemotherapy after surgery for patients with stage 3 (node-positive) colon cancer — and with a specific ...

By leveraging the structural parallels between genomic sequences and natural language, these AI-driven models can decode complex genetic information, offering unprecedented insights into plant biology. This advancement holds promise for accelerating crop improvement, enhancing biodiversity conservation, and bolstering food security in the face of global challenges. Traditionally, plant genomics has grappled with the intricacies of vast and complex datasets, often limited by the specificity of traditional machine learning models and the scarcity of annotated ...

 This research provides key insights into how microbial inoculants can offer a cost-effective, eco-friendly strategy to enhance crop resilience in saline soils. Soil salinization is a major global challenge that severely impacts agricultural productivity, with over 3% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface affected. It threatens food security by causing osmotic, ionic, and oxidative stress, which can reduce crop yields by more than 50%. Traditional remediation methods, such as physical and chemical interventions, are often prohibitively expensive. However, ...

While moms have traditionally gotten much of the focus when it comes to children’s eating habits, a new study highlights the importance of dads in shaping a child’s relationship with food. According to the study, young children were more likely to consume the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables if their father ate a healthier diet during his teen years.   The study is based on data from 669 men who answered questionnaires about their eating habits during adolescence and then, years later, provided information about their attitudes and behaviors surrounding their children’s diet.   “Our ...

May 31, 2025 — A phase II clinical trial led by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has met its primary endpoint, demonstrating that the combination of avelumab and cetuximab improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared to avelumab alone in patients with advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). The results, presented as an oral abstract at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, suggest a promising new approach for patients with this aggressive form of skin cancer. “These results show that combining immune checkpoint inhibition targeting the PD-1: PD-L1 pathway ...