EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Dec-2025 02:11 ET (23-Dec-2025 07:11 GMT/UTC)

Hideyuki Okano starts new position as president of the ISSCR

International Society for Stem Cell Research
Business Announcement

The ISSCR is delighted to announce Hideyuki Okano, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Keio University Regenerative Medicine Research Center, as well as former Dean of the Keio University School of Medicine in Japan, as its President. His term of office begins today.

New MRI approach maps brain metabolism, revealing disease signatures

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new technology that uses clinical MRI machines to image metabolic activity in the brain could give researchers and clinicians unique insight into brain function and disease, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report. The non-invasive, high-resolution metabolic imaging of the whole brain revealed differences in metabolic activity and neurotransmitter levels among brain regions; found metabolic alterations in brain tumors; and mapped and characterized multiple sclerosis lesions — with patients only spending minutes in an MRI scanner.

Journal: Nature Biomedical Engineering

‘Leukemia-on-a-chip’ could transform CAR T blood cancer treatments

University of Pennsylvania
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A collaborative multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and New York University has developed a miniature chip that could transform how blood cancer treatments are tested and tailored for patients. “This device addresses a significant gap in preclinical research, offering an advanced tool for studying CAR T cell therapy’s dynamic and multifaceted responses to leukemia,” says Saba Ghassemi of the Perelman School of Medicine at the Unviersity of Pennsylvania.

Journal: Nature Biomedical Engineering
Funder: Cancer Research Institute Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Career Development Program, American Society of Hematology Restart Award, NIH/National Cancer Institute, Cancer League of Colorado Research Grant, The Jeffrey Pride Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Research, The Children’s Oncology Group Foundation, NIH/National Cancer Institute, NIH/National Cancer Institute, NIH/National Cancer Institute, NIH/National Cancer Institute, NIH/National Cancer Institute, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer, The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Curing Kids Cancer, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. National Science Foundation, NIH/National Institutes of Health

New drug combination redefines first-line treatment for advanced urothelial cancer

Impact Journals LLC
Peer-Reviewed Publication

BUFFALO, NY – July 1, 2025 – A new review was published in Volume 16 of Oncotarget on June 17, 2025, titled “Optimizing enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab therapy.”

Journal: Oncotarget

Racial inequities and access to COVID-19 treatment

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: This cross-sectional study found that racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 treatment are substantial and partially explainable by encounter-level factors, particularly differences in diagnostic test type, virtual care access, and site of care. These findings suggest that targeted interventions, including expanding rapid test access and virtual care, may improve equity in outpatient COVID-19 treatment.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Residential segregation and lung cancer risk in African American adults

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: The results of this study suggest that structural racism embedded in neighborhood conditions contributes to lung cancer development and provides evidence for policymakers and public health leaders working to reduce disparities.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

New drug combination effective for T-cell lymphoma patients

Mass General Brigham
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Relapsed/refractory peripheral and cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (R/R PTCL and CTCL) are aggressive blood cancers that often resist standard therapy. Patients with these lymphomas may require stem cell transplants, but the disease needs to be brought under control before patients can undergo this treatment. A new study by investigators from PETAL Consortium at Mass General Brigham found the combination of duvelisib and romidepsin to be effective, tolerable and safe for patients with R/R PTCL and CTCL. Their findings suggest that this drug combination offers a novel strategy to help these patients control the disease in order to be eligible for stem cell transplants. The results are published in Blood Advances.

Journal: Blood Advances
Funder: Center for Lymphoma Research Funds, National Cancer Institute K08 Career Development Award, Reid Family Fund for Lymphoma Research