A landmark Indian clinical trial has found that giving steroids in short bursts instead of continuously can halve early treatment-related deaths in children with leukemia without reducing their chances of being cured. The study led by the Indian Childhood Collaborative Leukemia (ICiCle) group, which includes University of Manchester researchers, treated over 3,000 children with acute B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) at six major centers across India.

A study of more than 229,000 obese adults without diabetes in the United States has shown that weight loss drugs are associated with a decreased risk of obesity-related cancers. The research found that GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), such as semaglutide (brand names: Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (brand names: Mounjaro and Zepbound), were associated with a 41% decrease in the overall risk of developing cancer among non-diabetic patients who used the drugs for weight management, compared to those who relied on diet and exercise alone.

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T, has transformed treatment for blood cancers. The immunotherapy involves reprogramming a patient's own immune cells to recognize and attack tumor cells. It offers many patients long-lasting remission and even a cure. Yet the approach still fails in many lymphomas—cancers that affect the lymphatic system—especially when cancer cells are located in lymph nodes.

Tracking the brain's blood flow during neurosurgery represents one of the most critical and challenging parts of the operation. A brief interruption can mean the difference between permanent damage and full recovery, but it's difficult to track blood flow across the surgical field.

The first human clinical trial of a universal Sarbeco coronavirus vaccine, developed by the University of Cambridge and spin-out DIOSynVax (DVX) Ltd, has shown that the vaccine is safe and has no significant side effects.

Excessive bite force does not cause alveolar bone loss but significantly worsens it when combined with periodontitis, report researchers in a new study. While traumatic occlusion has long been suspected to exacerbate periodontitis, the molecular mechanisms behind this link were poorly understood. Now, using mouse models of both conditions separately and combined, the researchers conducted comprehensive gene expression analysis across multiple periodontal tissues, identifying key inflammatory pathways upregulated in bone when both conditions were present.

"There is a clear gap between what patients expect from the health care services and what they actually receive," says Alison Axisa Eriksen of the University of Agder (UiA). As part of her Ph.D. research, she has reviewed hundreds of complaints submitted to the Patient and User Ombudsman to understand what is going wrong in the municipal health services.

An increasing number of people are suffering from sleep deprivation, difficulty falling asleep, or interrupted sleep—with consequences for health, society, and the economy. An international research team involving the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine—Brain and Behavior (INM-7) at Forschungszentrum Jülich is therefore calling for a fundamental rethink. In the future, sleep should no longer be regarded merely as a personal health issue, but as a global health priority, they argue.

A group of researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has recently developed a new stem cell therapy with a remarkable ability to reverse new-onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) in a mouse model of the disease. The work is published in the journal Molecular Therapy.

The rods and cones in your eyes are responsible for helping you see, but what is responsible for helping them? Retinal pigment epithelium cells are their caretakers, but environmental, genetic and aging factors can strain them and make them less effective. This is known as age-related macular degeneration—a leading cause of blindness.