A new gene-editing method enables researchers to more easily determine whether a patient has inherited an increased risk of developing cancer - before any symptoms appear. Researchers at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen have tested the method in a hospital setting and believe it has the potential to save lives worldwide.

Ageing is the primary risk factor for cancer, dementia, and cardiovascular diseases. As the understanding of the biology of ageing constantly improves, there are already initial approaches to geroprotection, which seeks to reduce the age-related risk of disease and thus extend healthy lifespan. In a discussion paper published today by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the researchers involved recommend a paradigm shift in how research and medicine approach age-related diseases. In the paper “Health-Extending Medicine in an Aging Society – Prospects for Medical Research and Practice” they call for better research into the ageing process, so that medicine can focus on ageing itself – rather than waiting to treat age-related diseases.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University in Sweden have identified a new treatment strategy for neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. By combining two antioxidant enzyme inhibitors, they have converted cancer cells in mice into healthy nerve cells. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Key findings

• In this study, we have found that the respiratory phase affects the three-dimensional quantitative parameters of pulmonary subsolid nodules (SSNs) in low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening, with varying impacts on different types of pulmonary SSNs.

What is known and what is new?

• Previous studies have shown that the degree of lung inflation, reflecting the change of lung volume, could affect the volume and density of pulmonary nodules.

• Our study found that the respiratory phase had the greatest effect on the volume of pulmonary SSNs and the least effect on the long axis diameter in LDCT screening. Most quantitative parameters of pure ground-glass nodules (pGGNs) were more susceptible to respiratory phase than those of part-solid nodules (PSNs).

What is the implication, and what should change now?

• During follow-up, LDCT scan in different respiratory phases may interfere with the judgment of the growth of pulmonary SSNs. The influence of respiratory phase should be fully considered when comparing the changes of SSNs volume in follow-up of LDCT scan.