The diagnosis of a spinal cord tumor rightfully terrifies our patients, but it’s not just the tumor they worry about.
They worry about whether they will be able to walk again and return to work. They fear the possibility of never holding their kids or sleeping without pain.
That anxiety is not unfounded. For decades, spine tumor surgery too often came with a tradeoff. We had to walk a fine line between removing what we could and maintaining what neurological function we could.
Today, we are replacing invasive operations with procedures that allow for far more accuracy and preservation.

Direct-to-consumer pharmacies could offer substantial savings for patients taking generic medications, according to experts.
John Lin, MD, MSHP, assistant professor of Health Services Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues recently published a research letter in Annals of Internal Medicine evaluating savings from direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmacy models.
“As an oncologist, DTC pharmacies have helped many of my patients better afford their cancer drugs. It can be incredibly stressful to have a serious illness, like multiple sclerosis or cancer, and then not

Use of GLP-1s was associated with significantly reduced risk for hepatic complications among patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and type 2 diabetes, according to data.
The observational study, published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology, showed that the reduction was prompted by fewer cases of incident cirrhosis. Researchers also found that GLP-1s may have a greater disease-modifying potential earlier in the fibrosis trajectory, before advanced fibrosis is established.
“It was intriguing to see both the magnitude and consistency of the benefit of

Several CVD subtypes including high and low BP, arrhythmia disorders and cerebral infarction, were significantly associated with increased risk for future Alzheimer’s disease, researchers reported.
The data emphasize the importance of optimal heart health in healthy brain aging, specifically in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
“Weihua Zhou, PhD’s lab has focused on cardiology and Alzheimer’s disease research for over a decade. Through ongoing collaboration with clinicians and engagement with the literature,

CHICAGO — In patients with acquired hypothalamic obesity, treatment with setmelanotide for 2.5 years was associated with sustained reductions in age-related weight metrics, according to findings from a long-term extension study.
The study, presented at ENDO 2026, included 14 participants (12 younger than 18 years) who completed a 16-week phase 2 trial of setmelanotide (Imcivree, Rhythm Pharmaceuticals), a subcutaneous melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) agonist, and had at least a 5% reduction in BMI or a clinically meaningful benefit as determined by an investigator and for whom the drug was

CHICAGO — In this video, Pedro C. Barata, MD, MSc, FACP, discusses preliminary safety, dosimetry and pharmacokinetic results from the first part of the phase 3 ProstACT Global study, presented at ASCO Annual Meeting.
The study evaluated the investigational radio antibody-drug conjugate 177Lu rosopatamab tetraxetan (TLX591, Telix Pharmaceuticals), which targets prostate-specific membrane antigen, plus standard of care vs. standard of care alone in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
According to Barata, the safety and tolerability profile was “what we want

CHICAGO — In this video, Jame Abraham, MD, discusses a secondary safety analysis of the DESTINY-Breast05 study, with particular focus on clinical and demographic risk factors for interstitial lung disease and radiation pneumonitis.
Findings from the analysis, which included patients with residual invasive HER2-positive early breast cancer and high risk for recurrence, were presented at ASCO Annual Meeting.
Abraham and colleagues found that rates of interstitial lung disease were higher among those randomly assigned trastuzumab deruxtecan, also known as T-DXd (Enhertu; Daiichi Sankyo,

ORLANDO — Adults with COPD and frequent exacerbations had a significantly lower yearly moderate/severe exacerbation rate with astegolimab vs. placebo, according to data presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference.
These findings on astegolimab (Genentech, Roche), described as “a human [immunoglobulin]G2 monoclonal antibody that blocks ST2-mediated [interleukin]-33 activity and subsequent inflammation” in the presentation, were also simultaneously published in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
“This pooled analysis showed a favorable benefit-risk

Health care professionals and adults at risk for severe anaphylaxis both reported inconsistent patient epinephrine autoinjector adherence, according to survey data.
These findings, presented at the 2026 European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Annual Congress, also show that epinephrine nasal spray (EURneffy, ARS Pharmaceuticals) was favored/preferred over autoinjectors in both populations.
“Doctors should take patients’ fears (eg, against needles) into account and not underestimate the barriers of patients to use their adrenaline,” Margitta Worm, MD, head of the allergy and

Most clinicians agree that spiritual care is “essential” to taking care of patients with cancer, but only a fraction routinely screen for distress.
In a survey of nearly 700 oncologists, hematologists and palliative care clinicians, more than 90% agreed spiritual suffering can negatively affect outcomes, yet many of those respondents reported screening should not be part of their professional role, and less than 15% said they always screened for spiritual distress.
“If the goal of treatment is healing or prolonging survival with a good quality of life, for patients who request it, spiritual