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A common diabetes drug can reduce the pain of people with knee osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity, possibly delaying the need for knee replacements, research has found. Metformin, which is commonly prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes, reduced knee arthritis pain over six months in a clinical trial. The research was performed as a community-based study using telehealth. Some of the 107 participants with pain from knee osteoarthritis, who had a mean age of 60, took up to 2,000 mg of metformin daily for six months. Others took the placebo. None had diabetes. Knee pain was measured on a 0–100...

How would you summarize your study? Cisplatin is a chemotherapy drug used globally for the treatment of several cancers; however, it is also highly toxic to the kidneys. Beyond general supportive measures, there is minimal data from clinical trials regarding preventive treatments for cisplatin-associated kidney damage. Animal studies suggest magnesium may help the kidneys excrete cisplatin in the urine, thereby protecting the kidneys from damage. However, data from larger studies in humans is lacking. What question were you investigating? We examined whether receipt of IV magnesium on the same day as the first dose of IV cisplatin was associated with...

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment provides long-term relief for patients suffering from late radiation-induced injuries after treatment of cancer in the lower abdominal area. Five years after hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the positive effects remain. Radiation therapy is a component of many cancer treatments in organs such as the prostate, colon, ovaries and cervix. While tumor cells are destroyed, 5%–10% of patients experience severe side effects due to healthy tissue being affected by the radiation therapy. Symptoms may include urinary incontinence, bleeding and severe pain in the lower abdomen that becomes both physically and socially disabling. These problems can occur several years after...

A team of scientists has tested four anti-amyloid Alzheimer's therapeutics to find out how the drugs bind to toxic amyloid beta protein to tackle the disease. Using new, highly sensitive methods, the researchers detected and visualized how amyloid beta protein—a plaque that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease—binds to lecanemab, donanemab, gantenerumab and aducanumab. The findings show that lecanemab performs the best at binding a small, soluble form of amyloid beta, suggesting that it is most effective, when used as early as possible in the disease progression. Amyloid beta is one of the toxic proteins that...

Recently, researchers have discovered an increasing correlation between some liver cancers and non-viral chronic liver disease (CLD). One liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is associated with CLD in about 15%–25% of cases. In order to investigate how healthy liver tissue differs from that of HCC patients with CLD, scientists analyzed which metabolites were present in CLD and normal tissue to identify metabolic pathways that may be dysregulated. By investigating differences in gene expression and metabolites, the investigators were able to identify possible disease-causing pathways and potential therapeutic targets for HCC prevention. "The molecular mechanisms underlying the development of HCC from...

A new type of antibiotic for treatment of urinary tract infections in women could also work against gonorrhea infections, a new study finds. This could put the medication, called gepotidacin, on track to become the first new antibiotic for gonorrhea since the 1990s. “Gepotidacin is a novel oral antibacterial treatment with the potential to become an alternative option for the treatment of gonococcal infections, supported by an acceptable safety and tolerability profile,” the researchers wrote in the study published Monday in The Lancet, adding that the drug “could mark a meaningful advancement in patient care.” As an antibiotic, gepotidacin works...

An international team has found genomic testing and targeted therapies for patients with advanced cancer could improve survival rates by up to 40%. The team conducted a review of 37 trials. It found next-generation sequencing could help guide matched targeted therapies (MTT) for people with relapsed or metastatic cancer, delaying the progression of their cancer compared to standard treatments. "Next-generation sequencing (NGS) of cancer identifies specific mutations in the DNA of a person's cancer cells," said Dr. Shrestha. "These mutations can give clinicians clues about why the cancer is growing and which treatments might work best. "Targeted therapies designed to...

Call it a new type of precision medicine. A researcher says one day oncologists may be able to write personalized exercise "prescriptions" for cancer patients that suppress tumor growth. Jay Taylor helped develop a mathematical model that attempts to quantify the relationship between exercise, immune function and cancer. The paper looked at models of mice running on wheels to show that increases in exercise intensity and duration decrease the proliferation of malignant cells. According to the paper, the team worked on a mathematical model to describe the transition of natural killer cells from inactive to active states due to exercise-induced...

Opinion Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with millions of new cases reported each year. In 2022 alone, approximately 20 million new cancer cases were diagnosed globally, and 9.7 million lives were lost to the disease. In India, the numbers are equally alarming, with around 100 out of every one lakh people diagnosed with cancer. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), more than 14 lakh cancer cases were estimated in 2023. [1 lakh = 0.1 million] Despite advancements in early detection and treatment, many myths surrounding cancer testing prevent people from undergoing timely...

A large-scale study provides the strongest evidence yet that a shorter, standard-dose course radiation treatment is just as effective as conventional radiotherapy for prostate cancer, without compromising safety. The shorter approach, known as isodose moderately hypofractionated radiotherapy (MHFRT), delivers slightly higher doses of radiation per session, allowing the total treatment duration to be over four to five weeks instead of seven to eight weeks. Patients who received this type of MHFRT had the same cancer control rates as those who received conventional radiotherapy. Additionally, the risk of long-term side effects affecting the bladder and intestines was no higher with MHFRT,...

Researchers report a discovery in cardiac regeneration that offers new hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure. The study reveals a novel approach to promoting cardiomyocyte proliferation. "When the heart cannot replace injured cardiomyocytes with healthy ones, it becomes progressively weaker, a condition leading to heart failure. In this study, we investigated a new way to stimulate cardiomyocyte proliferation to help the heart heal," said Dr. Riham Abouleisa. Previous studies showed that calcium plays an important role in cardiomyocyte proliferation. In the current study, Abouleisa and her colleagues explored how modulating calcium influx in cardiomyocytes would affect their proliferation....

High-grade glioma, an aggressive form of pediatric and adult brain cancer, is challenging to treat given the tumor location, incidence of recurrence and difficulty for drugs to cross the blood-brain barrier. Researchers established a collaborative team to uncover a potential new avenue to address this disease. The team's study shows that high-grade glioma tumor cells harboring DNA alterations in the gene PDGFRA responded to the drug avapritinib, which is already approved by the US FDA to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumors with a PDGFRA exon 18 mutation as well advanced systemic mastocytosis and indolent systemic mastocytosis. "We were excited to see...

Cancer disrupts RNA splicing by suppressing poison exons, leading to uncontrolled tumor growth. Researchers at JAX and UConn Health found that targeting TRA2β RNA with antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) restores this natural kill switch, shutting down cancer growth signals. ASOs offer a promising, highly specific approach for treating aggressive cancers. The discovery could pave the way for a groundbreaking RNA-based multi-cancer treatment. Alternative RNA splicing functions like a film editor rearranging scenes from the same footage to create different versions of a movie. By selecting which segments to retain or discard, the editor can shape the final product into a drama,...

Research led by Alberto Martini, MD, that found using antihistamines in patients receiving second-line immunotherapy (IO) for bladder cancer may improve outcomes. The research focused on metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC), cancer that begins in the urothelial cells, which line the urethra, bladder, ureters and some other organs. Martini, served as corresponding author of the study. Using data from two clinical trials, the researchers identified 896 patients who were treated with second-line IO drug atezolizumab. Out of those patients, 155 patients received concomitant antihistamines and 741 did not. Antihistamine users had 41% lower risk for all-cause mortality, 42% lower risk for...

A new study found that cold therapy protects breast cancer patients from nerve pain caused by chemotherapy. Researchers found that cryotherapy, a treatment that involves exposing the body or specific areas of the body to extremely cold temperatures for therapeutic purposes, helped prevent nerve damage in breast cancer patients who are being treated with the chemotherapy drugs paclitaxel and nab-paclitaxel. These chemotherapy drugs are notorious for causing long-lasting pain or tingling in your hands, feet or legs. Cryotherapy reduced the incidence of peripheral neuropathy from chemotherapy by 55% in this meta-analysis.

Research shows that most cases of type 2 diabetes can be prevented through lifestyle interventions. But if you already have the condition, can it be reversed? The answer is a resounding yes, according to Gerald I. Shulman, MD, Ph.D. Insulin resistance drives type 2 diabetes, Shulman explains. "If you reverse insulin resistance, you reverse type 2 diabetes," he said. In a landmark study, Shulman and Kitt Petersen, MD showed that modest weight reduction—even as little as 10%—does just that. However, Shulman notes, many people who are initially successful at losing weight regain it. The novel anti-obesity GLP-1 medications can play...

An antibiotic used to treat infective diarrhea could be an effective drug for a type of inflammatory bowel disease, a new study has found. Results revealed that an antibiotic called vancomycin may also be effective in treating people who have a specific type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which develops in the context of an incurable autoimmune liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). Notably, four in five patients who participated in the study achieved remission after taking the drug as part of a clinical trial. This study is significant, as several participants with this disease had not responded to...

Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) harboring BRAF V600E mutations benefited from first-line treatment with the targeted therapies encorafenib and cetuximab plus a mFOLFOX6 chemotherapy regimen, according to the Phase III BREAKWATER trial. The findings demonstrated a 60.9% overall response rate (ORR) with the three-drug combination compared to 40% with the standard-of-care (SOC) treatment—chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab. In the experimental arm, 68.7% of patients had a duration of response of at least six months, compared to 34.1% of patients in the SOC arm. "This new regimen highlights the importance of combining dual-targeted therapy with chemotherapy." More than 150,000 people...

When Donald Trump unveiled a $500bn plan to spearhead a cancer vaccine, many greeted it as another of his grandiose proposals. But not Anna Bochenski. The 53-year-old New Yorker is one of the few people in the world who knows how life-changing the shots can be. The administrative worker was told she had just months to live in January 2021 after her aggressive breast cancer returned and stopped responding to treatment. After a six-year battle with the disease, which included numerous surgeries and 32 brutal rounds of radiation, the cancer had spread to her ribs and spine, where it had...

Artemisia herba-alba, known also as common wormwood, white wormwood, or simply herba alba. (Credit: Nahhana on Shutterstock) ================================================================ In a nutshell * A common desert plant called Artemisia herba-alba contains compounds that can effectively kill colorectal cancer cells in laboratory tests while appearing to leave healthy cells unharmed * The plant extract works through multiple mechanisms to fight cancer cells, triggering cell death, stopping cell division, and disrupting cancer cell communication pathways — making it harder for cancer cells to develop resistance * While promising, this research was conducted in laboratory conditions, and more studies are needed before this could...