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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-Oct-2026 20:16 ET (1-Nov-2026 00:16 GMT/UTC)

AI helps accelerate breast cancer diagnosis for high-risk women

University of California - San Francisco
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Women with abnormal mammograms often have to wait for weeks to find out whether they have breast cancer.

Now, researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley have found a way to help reduce the wait and the worry by using AI to quickly identify those who are most likely to have the disease. By triaging these patients, the AI-guided workflow takes women with abnormal scans through the diagnostic process — from imaging to evaluation and sometimes even biopsy — in a single day.

From discovery to startup: How BTI continues to cultivate scientific innovation across the globe

Boyce Thompson Institute
Business Announcement

Since its founding more than a century ago, the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has been a place where bold scientific ideas take root. From advancing plant science and training future researchers, to fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, BTI has long served as a launchpad for scientific discovery. That legacy continues today with innovation extending far beyond the walls of the Institute — and across the globe.

One of the latest examples is PrecizionIQ, an India-based health technology startup co-founded by BTI alumnus Pedro Rodrigues, a former postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Frank Schroeder at BTI. The company is developing novel, non-invasive diagnostics for fetal chromosomal abnormalities, with a mission to make early prenatal testing more accurate, affordable and accessible.

UC Irvine study identifies serious infection risks linked to targeted cancer therapies

University of California - Irvine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A UC Irvine-led study analyzed 3,511 cancer patients across six UC medical centers to examine infection-related side effects to antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs.

Researchers found some ADC therapies were linked to dangerously low infection-fighting white blood cell counts and related complications, including hospitalization.

Led by pharmacy professor Alexandre Chan, the study highlights the need for closer monitoring and supportive care as targeted cancer therapies become more widely used.

Journal: Cancers

Five minutes of prayer reduces pain and anxiety in primary care patients, randomized trial finds

University of Maryland School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A randomized controlled trial conducted at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has found that a five-minute session of proximal intercessory prayer (PIP) — in-person prayer offered by a trained volunteer — significantly reduced pain and anxiety in primary care patients compared to a music control group. The findings, published in the May/June 2026 issue of Annals of Family Medicine, suggest that proximal intercessory prayer may offer a practical, non-pharmacologic complement to conventional care, particularly for underserved populations.

Journal: The Annals of Family Medicine

Study links cannabis and tobacco co-use to lower brain performance in at-risk adolescents

Elsevier
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research shows that among people at clinical high risk for psychosis, cannabis and tobacco co-use was associated with lower cognitive performance compared to healthy controls. The novel study appearing in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, published by Elsevier, fills a critical gap in research, providing clinicians and scientists with vital new insights into the risks associated with cannabis and tobacco co-use and the potential impact on vulnerable adolescents.

CPRIT awards newly integrated UT San Antonio to further its mission to combat cancers across South Texas

The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center
Grant and Award Announcement

The newly integrated University of Texas at San Antonio and its academic health center, UT Health San Antonio, recently received over $2.7 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to help develop the next generation of cancer researchers and focus on Ewing sarcoma, AI in oncology and the obesity-endometrial cancer risk.

UCLA researchers awarded $3.2 million NIH grant to develop AI tool for more personalized liver cancer treatment

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Grant and Award Announcement

Dr. Jason Chiang and Dr. Kyung Sung of the department of radiological sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have received a $3.2 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced imaging platform designed to improve yttrium-90 (Y90) radioembolization planning for patients with liver cancer.

Dr. Mina Sedrak selected to co-lead national committee advancing cancer care for older adults

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Grant and Award Announcement

Dr. Mina Sedrak, director of the UCLA Center for Cancer and Aging and director of Cancer Control and Survivorship Research at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been selected to serve as co-chair of the Cancer in the Older Adult Committee for The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.

Protein in tumor microenvironment found to promote colorectal cancer growth and immune evasion

Impact Journals LLC
Peer-Reviewed Publication

BUFFALO, NY – June 2, 2026 – A new research paper was published in Volume 17 of Oncotarget on May 20, 2026, titled “Microenvironmental CTHRC1 has a pro-tumorigenic role in colorectal cancer.”

Journal: Oncotarget