EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 14-May-2025 17:09 ET (14-May-2025 21:09 GMT/UTC)

The skinny on fat, ascites and anti-tumor immunity

Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A Ludwig Cancer Research study has identified a key mechanism by which advanced ovarian cancers suppress anti-tumor immune responses and resist immunotherapies.

Journal: Science Immunology
Funder: Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Ludwig Center at Harvard, Irish Cancer Society, NIH/National Institutes of Health, Science Foundation Ireland, Ireland East Hospital Group, National Maternity Hospital Foundation, Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, American Association for Cancer Research, Company of Biologists

New film series 'The Deadly Five' highlights global animal infectious diseases

Biofaction (Austria)
Business Announcement

The EU-funded WiLiMan-ID project (https://www.wiliman-id.eu/) is excited to announce the launch of a brand-new short film series, The Deadly Five. This series is aimed at raising awareness of five critical animal infectious diseases, classified as high priority: avian influenza, African swine fever, African horse sickness, West Nile virus, and chronic wasting disease. Each film focuses on a different disease and the experts studying and fighting them, highlighting the risks each disease poses to animal and public health, as well as the strategies being developed to mitigate their impact.

Funder: Horizon Europe, HORIZON EUROPE Food

University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center receives funding to implement improved symptom monitoring for patients undergoing cancer treatment

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center
Grant and Award Announcement

UH Seidman Cancer Center has been approved for funding by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to implement electronic monitoring of patient’s self-reported symptoms during cancer treatment.

Led by Co-Principal Investigators Dr. Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, UH Chief Quality and Clinical Transformation Officer, and Veale Distinguished Chair in Leadership and Clinical transformation and Melinda Hsu, MD, a medical oncologist at UH Seidman Cancer Center, this project aims to improve the quality of life and clinical outcomes for patients being treated for their cancer at UH Seidman Cancer Center by integrating electronic patient-reported outcome tools into EPIC, the electronic health record.

Fat-rich fluid fuels immune failure in ovarian cancer

Trinity College Dublin
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research led by Irish scientists has uncovered how lipid-rich fluid in the abdomen, known as ascites, plays a central role in weakening the body’s immune response in advanced ovarian cancer. The findings offer new insights into immune suppression in ovarian cancer and open promising avenues for future immunotherapy approaches.

Over 70% of patients with ovarian cancer are diagnosed at an advanced stage, often presenting with large volumes of ascites. This ascites fluid not only supports the spread of cancer throughout the abdominal cavity but also significantly impairs the body’s immune defences. Understanding how ascites affects the immune system is important for developing better treatments that use the immune system to fight cancer.

In this recent study, researchers from Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin explored how ascites disrupts immune cell function, with a particular focus on natural killer (NK) cells and T cells, which are key players in the body’s ability to eliminate tumours.

Journal: Science Immunology
Funder: Irish Cancer Society, NIH/National Institutes of Health, Research Ireland, Ireland East Hospital Group, National Maternity Hospital Foundation, Health Research Board, Ludwig Center at Harvard, Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, Gene Lay Institute, AACR Anna D. Barker Basic Cancer Research Fellowship

National Cancer Institute grant funds prostate cancer imaging study

Weill Cornell Medicine
Grant and Award Announcement

Weill Cornell Medicine has received a projected $4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, to conduct a clinical trial testing whether a new imaging approach could reduce the need for biopsies to monitor prostate cancer.

Mass General Brigham researchers share tool to improve newborn genetic screening

Mass General Brigham
Peer-Reviewed Publication

More than a decade ago, researchers launched the BabySeq Project, a pilot program to return newborn genomic sequencing results to parents and measure the effects on newborn care. Today, over 30 international initiatives are exploring the expansion of newborn screening using genomic sequencing (NBSeq), but a new study by researchers from Mass General Brigham highlights the substantial variability in gene selection among those programs. In a paper published in Genetics in Medicine, an official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, they offer a data-driven approach to prioritizing genes for public health consideration.

Journal: Genetics in Medicine

Estimates of illicit opioid use in the U.S.

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: In this national survey of 1,515 adults conducted in June 2024, 166 respondents (11.0%) reported illicit opioid use and 114 (7.5%) reported illicitly manufactured fentanyl use within the past 12 months. These rates are much higher than previously reported estimates. The findings highlight the need for more timely and accurate data to inform policy and intervention strategies. Enhanced data collection efforts are essential for understanding and mitigating the opioid crisis.

Journal: JAMA Health Forum

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