Global study links consumption of ultraprocessed foods to preventable premature deaths
A study analyzing data from nationally representative dietary surveys and mortality data from eight countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, United Kingdom, and United States) shows that premature deaths attributable to consumption of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) increase significantly according to their share in individuals’ total energy intake. The new study, appearing in the American […]
Memory, Cognitive Symptoms Linked to Sleep Apnea
Memory and cognitive symptoms were tied to self-reported sleep apnea, cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) showed. In a survey of more than 4,200 U.S. adults, those who reported sleep apnea symptoms had greater odds of also reporting memory or cognitive symptoms (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.48-2.37, P<0.001), said Dominique […]
Blood Protein Changes May Unravel Long COVID Mysteries
Long COVID was identified in blood proteins, an analysis of longitudinal data suggested. Blood samples from long COVID patients showed changes to blood serum proteins at 6 months that indicated activation of the immune system’s complement cascade, altered coagulation, and tissue injury, reported Onur Boyman, MD, of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and co-authors […]
Sotorasib’s Confirmatory Data in NSCLC Unreliable, Says FDA Panel
An FDA advisory committee on Thursday said the confirmatory trial data for the KRAS inhibitor sotorasib (Lumakras) in previously treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cannot be reliably interpreted in the CodeBreaK 200 study. Most members of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) agreed with FDA staff that multiple sources of systemic bias during the […]
Opinion | ‘Believe in Your Data and Question Conventional Wisdom’: What We Heard This Week
“Two lessons: believe in your data and question conventional wisdom.” — Stephen Hauser, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, discussing his book, The Face Laughs While the Brain Cries. “You don’t always think a chip can be dangerous.” — Scott Krakower, DO, of Northwell Health in New York, about the ‘One Chip Challenge’ […]
Long COVID Symptoms May Emerge Months After Infection
Long COVID symptoms may emerge months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, data from the prospective multicenter INSPIRE study suggested. Symptom prevalence decreased over 1 year among long COVID patients, but persisted or emerged at different time points in some cases, reported Sharon Saydah, PhD, of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and co-authors in […]
Opinion | Long COVID Persists as a Mass Disabling Event
Bonuck is a pediatric health researcher and a professor of family and social medicine. The latest CDC data on long COVID in U.S. adults and an alarming World Health Organization (WHO) statement about its long-term impact underscore the pandemic’s lingering and debilitating effects. Like the satirical film “Don’t Look Up,” in which scientists couldn’t focus […]
Retinal OCT Shows Promise as Diagnostic Aid for Mild Cognitive Impairment
Aided by artificial intelligence, analysis of retinal images and related data identified condition-specific features that distinguished patients with mild cognitive impairment from those with normal cognition, a prospective study showed. The analytic model, used to evaluate optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA), detected changes in the retina and microcirculation that distinguished mild cognitive […]
EphrinB2 Expression in Urothelial Cancer Tied to Checkpoint Inhibitor Activity
A prior analysis of data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) demonstrated that high EphrinB2 gene expression was associated with poor survival in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, researchers reported new findings showing that EphrinB2 expression in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma was linked with […]
New Data on BCMA-Directed Bispecifics in Multiple Myeloma
Promising data on new B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed bispecific antibodies were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting. These included results on two investigational products: the phase II LINKER-MM1 study, which showed that linvoseltamab elicited an objective response rate of 71% at the recommended dose of 200 mg for patients with […]