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01 / 05
A New Strategy to Attack Aggressive Brain Cancer

Associated Press | Noncommunicable Disease

A New Strategy to Attack Aggressive Brain Cancer

“A new strategy to fight an extremely aggressive type of brain tumor showed promise in a pair of experiments with a handful of patients.

Scientists took patients’ own immune cells and turned them into “living drugs” able to recognize and attack glioblastoma. In the first-step tests, those cells shrank tumors at least temporarily, researchers reported Wednesday.

So-called CAR-T therapy already is used to fight blood-related cancers like leukemia but researchers have struggled to make it work for solid tumors. Now separate teams at Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania are developing next-generation CAR-T versions designed to get past some of glioblastoma’s defenses.”

From Associated Press.

STAT | Noncommunicable Disease

New Mosquito Nets Prevented 13 Million Malaria Cases in Pilot Programs

“Results shared this week by the New Nets Project, an initiative funded by Unitaid and the Global Fund, highlighted a pair of second-generation bed nets tested in endemic areas between 2019 and 2022. About 56 million nets were distributed in Burkina Faso, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire, among other countries, and several pilot studies found that the new nets were between 20% and 50% more effective than traditional ones in reducing mosquito exposure and reduced the risk of infection by up to 55%. Overall, the New Net Project estimated the nets helped prevent up to 13 million additional cases of malaria, saving close to 25,000 lives.”

From STAT.

New York Times | Health & Medical Care

AI Could Spot Breast Cancer Earlier

“Clinics around the country are starting to offer patients a new service: having their mammograms read not just by a radiologist, but also by an artificial intelligence model. The hospitals and companies that provide these tools tout their ability to speed the work of radiologists and detect cancer earlier than standard mammograms alone.”

From New York Times.

Wall Street Journal | Noncommunicable Disease

The New, More-Hopeful Face of Alzheimer’s Disease

“For as long as I’ve been practicing medicine, Alzheimer’s disease has been, essentially, a death sentence. You give the diagnosis, and you prepare the patient and the family for the worst.

Until now…

Thanks to new developments in the early detection and management of Alzheimer’s, as well as new medications, many patients can slow the course of the disease and boost their well-being. The result is that more Alzheimer’s patients are able to live relatively normal lives for much longer than previously—several years, at least, and often longer.”

From Wall Street Journal.

MIT Technology Review | Noncommunicable Disease

Newest Experimental Epilepsy Treatment: Brain-Cell Transplants

“Stem cells could badly use a win. There are plenty of shady health clinics that say stem cells will cure anything, and many people who believe it. In reality, though, turning these cells into cures has been a slow-moving research project that, so far, hasn’t resulted in any approved medicines.

But that could change, given the remarkable early results of Neurona’s tests on the first five volunteers. Of those, four, including Graves, are reporting that their seizures have decreased by 80% and more. There are also improvements in cognitive tests.”

From MIT Technology Review.