Women who develop bacterial vaginosis (BV) often later acquire chlamydia, a common and potentially serious sexually transmitted bacterial infection. Now, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that BV actually consists of two subtypes—one of which significantly increases the risk of developing chlamydia infections. The findings were made in a population of young Black and Hispanic women, who are disproportionately affected by both BV and chlamydia, but are historically understudied. The study, one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, was published online today in the journal Cell.

While most known types of DNA damage are fixed by our cells’ in-house DNA repair mechanisms, some forms of DNA damage evade repair and can persist for many years, new research shows. This means that the damage has multiple chances to generate harmful mutations, which can lead to cancer.

Patients with a common aggressive type of bladder cancer could get correct treatment significantly quicker as new research suggests that initial MRI imaging and biopsy could be used to reduce the time patients wait, according to a new paper published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.