Early diagnosis and better awareness mean tumours can be caught early – and when disease is found, under-45s can often tolerate chemotherapy better.

A lung disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can have close connections to bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract, according to new research published in the journal Gut. COPD is a chronic lung disease in which patients have difficulty breathing. It is usually attributed to the inhalation of toxins like long-term cigarette use or exposure to air pollution, for example. Worldwide, COPD is the third leading cause of death. Now we can add it to the long list of conditions that have been associated with the vast community of microbes in the GI tract, called the gut microbiome.

Researchers have shown that specific types of gut bacteria are linked to the development of COPD. While this does not show a cause and effect relationship, the investigators also determined that when fecal bacteria were transferred from healthy mice to mice with COPD, symptoms of COPD were relieved in the recipient mice.

Researchers from U of T Medicine pinpoint issue that could be hampering common chemotherapy drug ➡️

Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research have found two enzymes that work against the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, preventing it from effectively treating pancreatic cancer.

The enzymes – APOBEC3C and APOBEC3D – increase during gemcitabine treatment and promote resistance to DNA replication stress in pancreatic cancer cells.

This, in turn, counteracts the effects of gemcitabine and allows for the growth of cancer cells.