Veterans with melanoma have a 47% higher risk for developing Parkinson’s disease compared with veterans without melanoma, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
These findings persisted even after adjusting for confounders, according to Rebecca I. Hartman, MD, MPH, FAAD, associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School.
“It is relatively well-established that patients with Parkinson’s disease have an increased risk for melanoma,” Hartman told Healio. “But the reverse — whether patients with melanoma have an increased risk for

The FDA granted priority review to a supplemental biologics license application for Enspryng for myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease, according to a press release from Roche.
“Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD) is a rare autoimmune disease that can attack the optic nerves, brain and spinal cord and cause severe and unpredictable relapses, resulting in accumulating neurological damage, vision loss and disability,” Siân Lennon-Chrimes, PhD, global development leader neuroimmunology at Roche Pharma Development, told Healio.

A group of diabetes leaders released a letter announcing a boycott of the American Diabetes Association after the organization released the results of its independent review of the events that occurred in June at the ADA Scientific Sessions.
The letter, which was released on Google Forms, was addressed to members of the ADA board of directors and stated that the undersigned healthcare professionals “are boycotting the American Diabetes Association.” The letter said the signees will no longer attend any upcoming meetings led by the ADA leadership or board, including the 2027 Scientific

MUNICH — In patients indicated for statin therapy who were recently nonadherent, a digital outreach strategy improved refill rates compared with the usual communication, researchers reported at the European Society of Cardiology Congress.
However, most patients did not refill their statin prescription, according to a presentation.
The ADHERE-ASCVD study, simultaneously published in JAMA, included 20,604 patients (mean age, 55 years; 41% women) from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health plan with atherosclerotic CVD or at high risk for it who were prescribed a statin but had been

A chemotherapy-free regimen offered durable disease control for certain patients with advanced breast cancer, according to results of the phase 1/phase 2 ASPIRE trial.
The regimen — which consists of four targeted therapies — also appeared well tolerated, with no unexpected safety signals observed in a cohort of patients with treatment-naive hormone receptor-positive, HER2-positive metastatic disease.
The findings from the single-arm study support the combination’s potential to offer greater convenience with comparable efficacy and less toxicity than treatments currently used in the first-line

In 2024, surgeons at Northwestern Medicine completed the first awake kidney transplant.
Led by transplant surgeons Satish N. Nadig, MD, PhD and Vinayak S. Rohan, MD and anesthesiologist Vicente Garcia Tomas, MD, the procedure was the first kidney transplant to be performed using single spinal/epidural anesthesia injection rather than general anesthesia at Northwestern Medicine.
After the first surgery, Northwestern Medicine established the Accelerated Surgery Without General Anesthesia in Kidney Transplantation (AWAKE) program. Since then, the program has completed 25 transplant operations.

Ageism in rheumatology care often starts with stereotypes about older patients and is reinforced by structural factors, according to Jiha Lee, MD, clinical assistant professor of rheumatology at the University of Michigan.
“Previous research has shown that age is ranked second only to disease activity, and on par with erosive changes, in terms of the factors that influence a rheumatologist’s decisions about treatment,” Lee told Healio in an interview. “The older you are, the less likely you are going to be treated. It was purely that number, the patient’s age.”

The California Department of Public Health identified 592 cases of “especially severe” engineered stone silicosis in workers between January 2019 and June 2026, according to findings published in NEJM Evidence.
“Clinicians should be on the lookout for silicosis in countertop fabrication workers,” Amy Heinzerling, MD, MPH, medical officer at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), told Healio.
“They can play an important role in documenting and responding to this epidemic by asking patients about their work, screening both symptomatic and asymptomatic countertop fabrication workers

In European school children, a link emerged between two bacteria in classroom dust — Streptomyces and Mycobacterium spp. — and lower lung function, according to data presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.
“For clinicians, the practical message is to remain attentive to environmental histories, including school, as well as home conditions,” Soutrik Banerjee, PhD, consultant senior RWE lead statistician at Eli Lilly and Company, told Healio. “Where appropriate, clinicians may ask about visible dampness or mold, ventilation, building maintenance, cleaning practices

Researchers have developed a blood-based assay that could help identify individuals with precursor lesions for colorectal cancer, a known limitation of many blood-based screening tests.
The assay, known as DENEB, detected 81% of advanced adenomas, as well as 91% of CRC overall and 92% of stage I to III cancers.
Screening rates among adults at average risk for CRC in the U.S. often fall short of the proposed 80% benchmark for population-level impact, according to study background. Blood-based tests have the potential to reach people who would otherwise remain unscreened.
However, these tests have