Male adolescents and young adults with cancer have a slightly elevated risk of having preterm birth and children with low birth weight, but no increased risk of birth defects in their offspring, according to research by UTHealth Houston. The population-based study was recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

This paper to be published in Science reveals a surprising new role for immune cells in regulating blood sugar.

Key Findings: Immune cells migrate from the intestine to the pancreas during periods of low energy, like intermittent fasting or exercise.

This migration triggers glucagon release, helping to stabilise blood sugar levels.

These results uncover a remarkable, previously unknown “three-way conversation” between the nervous, immune, and hormonal systems.

Why it matters:

Shows that the immune system not only fights infections but also actively maintains metabolic balance, enabling the body to handle fasting and intense exercise more efficiently.

Opens doors to new therapies targeting diabetes, obesity, and even cancer, since some cancers hijack metabolic pathways—including glucagon—to fuel their growth.

A University of Massachusetts Amherst-Ernest Pharmaceuticals team of scientists has made “exciting,” patient-friendly advances in developing a non-toxic bacterial therapy, BacID, to deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly into tumors. This emerging technology holds promise for very safe and more effective treatment of cancers with high mortality rates, including liver, ovarian and metastatic breast cancer.

Because of You: The Campaign for University Hospitals has received more than $1.5 billion in community support towards its ambitious $2 billion goal. Because of You aims to make a significant and enduring impact in five key areas: caring for children, transforming cancer care, leading discovery and innovation, investing in our community, and embracing emerging priorities. 

Nebraska scientists have taken a significant step toward bringing to market a new way to target therapeutic drugs to specific locations in the body. The strategy, which uses universal milk exosomes to transport cargo to human cells, would overcome one of the major flaws of current drug delivery approaches, where therapeutics reach beyond diseased cells to healthy parts of the body. Chemotherapy patients, for example, often suffer compromised immune function, hair loss and gastrointestinal upset because their therapeutics reach beyond targeted cells. Minovacca, a startup company recently incorporated by Janos Zempleni and Jiantao Guo of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, would commercialize use of universal milk exosomes, natural nanoparticles found in milk to deliver therapeutics, gene editing tools plasmids and more to targeted locations in the human body. The technique also offers new avenues to develop treatments for rare diseases. 

The quantitative effects of alcohol consumption on cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are unknown. This study aimed to establish a dose-dependent model of alcohol consumption on the risks of cirrhosis and HCC.

BUFFALO, NY- January 16, 2025 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as “Aging (Albany NY)” and “Aging-US” by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 22 on December 2, 2024, entitled “Less frequent skin ulcers among patients with Werner syndrome treated with pioglitazone: findings from the Japanese Werner Syndrome Registry.”

The American Cancer Society (ACS) today released Cancer Statistics, 2025, the organization’s annual report on cancer facts and trends. The new findings show the cancer mortality rate declined by 34% from 1991 to 2022 in the United States, averting approximately 4.5 million deaths. However, this steady progress is jeopardized by increasing incidence for many cancer types, especially among women and younger adults, shifting the burden of disease. For example, incidence rates in women 50-64 years of age have surpassed those in men, and rates in women under 50 are now 82% higher than their male counterparts, up from 51% in 2002. This pattern includes lung cancer, which is now higher in women than in men among people younger than 65 years. These important findings are published today in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, alongside its consumer-friendly companion, Cancer Facts & Figures 2025, available on cancer.org.