Previous research has suggested that false-positive mammogram results are associated with higher risk for subsequently developing breast cancer. To further examine this issue, researchers in Sweden used national mammography data to follow 500,000 women (median age, 52) during 30 years (1991–2020). About 45,000 women had false-positive results (i.e., they were recalled for further evaluation but didn’t receive diagnoses of breast cancer at that time). Women with false-positive results were matched with controls to compare rates of subsequent breast cancer diagnosis.

The results include:

Scientists have dedicated their lives to finding a cure for cancer. America became a science hub for cancer research, particularly after President Richard Nixon declared the “war on cancer” in 1971. As a result, extensive research has been published on how cancer functions and different ways to target both solid and hematologic malignancies. Unfortunately, there is currently not a cure for cancer. Although some patients are treated and enter remission, tumors can reoccur. In addition, some tumor types are harder to treat than others. Although the science community is hopeful to effectively treat each type of cancer, more work is needed to discern why some tumors are harder to treat than others.

Many tumors evade the immune system through different mechanisms and mutations. Therapy-resistant cells may stay dormant for a period of time before proliferating, which results in cancer recurrence. Additionally, different surface markers prevent immune cell activation which target cancer. This allows the tumor to proliferate without an immune cell response. Many different immunotherapies being developed target these surface markers to activate T cells, which kill or lyse infections. The type of immunotherapy that refers to the blockade of cell-to-cell interactions is known as checkpoint inhibitors. Checkpoint proteins are surface markers that help the immune cell differentiate from self. More specifically, these cells provide a signal for immune cells to avoid lysing healthy cells and protect from autoimmunity. However, tumors use a selection of checkpoint proteins to avoid immune cell detection.

Fungal infections have been slipping past their usual geographic boundaries and increasing in hospitals and other settings — and, as Scientific American’s Maryn McKenna has pointed out, we currently don’t have much recourse against them.

Fungal infections are incredibly hard to beat, even with modern medicine.

But MIT researchers studying the common yeast Candida albicans may have found a new effective antifungal candidate, and you’ve got some in you right now: mucus.

Mission accomplished. Except Rober wasn’t done yet. Out of curiosity — and in preparation for the challengers to follow — he wondered if it was possible to make an even smaller blaster. One, say, three million times smaller? To answer that, he asked Pallav Kosuri, an assistant professor at the Integrative Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute, if it was possible.

Kosuri’s reply: Sure! You just need to make it out of DNA.

The technique Kosuri had in mind is known as “DNA origami,” and like its paper-based namesake, it is both simple and intriguing. The idea to make microscopic structures with folded DNA was conceived by Nadrian Seeman, a crystallographer, Kosuri explained in an interview with Freethink.

A concentrated cannabis extract has shown “remarkable” potential to kill off the most dangerous type of skin cancer. It’s still early days, but if the results can be replicated in living animal models and then in humans, it could provide a whole new drug avenue for a disease that is currently difficult to treat: melanoma. The cannabis oil in question is known as PHEC-66, and it was developed by MGC Pharmaceuticals in Australia. In October 2023,…