A new study reveals turbulent flows generated by living matter are ‘filtered’ out by neighbouring fluids, posing implications for how scientists measure forces in cells and tissues.
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Targeted therapy reduces risk of lung cancer recurrence by 83% in rare genetic subtype
A new study co-led by investigators at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center shows that the targeted cancer drug selpercatinib can significantly reduce the risk of lung cancer returning in patients with a rare genetic subtype of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), potentially offering a new treatment option to help keep the disease from coming back after standard therapy.
The international phase 3 clinical trial, called LIBRETTO-432, found that after two years, 92% of patients with stage II–IIIA RET fusion-positive NSCLC who received selpercatinib after standard treatment were alive without their cancer returning—a measure known as event-free survival—compared with 61% of patients who received a placebo. Overall, the treatment reduced the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 83%.
The results were shared during the Plenary Session on May 31 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting by Dr. Jonathan Goldman, Health Sciences Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The paper was also published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Children’s brain tumors may spread faster when microglia build invasion-friendly scaffolding
Researchers at the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet, have identified a possible mechanism behind the spread of the aggressive brain tumor diffuse midline glioma. The study shows that the brain’s own immune cells, microglia, may contribute to the tumor’s invasive capacity by producing the protein fibronectin. The results are published in the journal Cell Death & Disease.
Diffuse midline glioma (DMG), also known as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), is a rare but highly aggressive brain tumor that primarily affects children. There is currently no effective treatment, and the prognosis is very poor.
In the present study, the researchers investigated how microglia—the brain’s immune cells—are affected by tumor cells and what role they play in disease progression.
Scientists discover inherited traits that break Mendel’s Laws of genetics
A major mouse study found that some inherited traits are passed down through epigenetic changes that break the classic rules of genetics. Researchers discovered hundreds of cases where these chemical DNA marks behaved unexpectedly, including some that seemed to emerge out of nowhere. They also identified the first known naturally occurring paramutation in a mammal, hinting that environmental influences may play a larger role in inheritance than scientists realized.
Innovative Mars rovers ‘swim’ through the sand
Some animals can move efficiently beneath granular surfaces. These include the sandfish (Scincus scincus), a lizard native to the Sahara. It can burrow into the sand and then literally “swim” through the desert sand to hunt or escape predators.
The principles of movement underlying this ability have only been understood for a few years. Researchers at the University of Würzburg have now translated the sandfish’s locomotion mechanism into an initial technical solution—an innovative Mars rover that outperforms other models when moving on sand.
The team led by computer scientist Marco Schmidt, Professor for Embedded Systems and Sensors for Earth Observation (ESSEO), is collaborating with researchers from Bremen. The project is part of the VaMEx initiative of the German Aerospace Center.
For real heart protection, the weekly exercise number climbs far beyond current advice
Adults should aim to do between 560 and 610 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity to achieve a substantial reduction in the risk of heart attacks and stroke, suggest the findings of an observational study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
This is between three to four times higher than the current public health recommendation that adults do at least 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical exercise such as brisk walking, running, or cycling.
People who are less fit need to do slightly more exercise than those who are very fit to get the same cardiovascular benefits, the study suggests.
John Nash (1928−2015)
John Nash was born on June 13, 1928, in Bluefield, West Virginia, a former coal town nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains. As a young boy, Nash was solitary, bookish, and introverted. His father, John Sr., was a quiet engineer with an incisive mind. His mother, Virginia, also intelligent, was a former teacher who had large dreams for her son, pushing him to read at four, learn Latin, and skip a grade at school.
The first hint of John Nash’s math talent came in fourth grade, when a teacher told Virginia that the boy couldn’t do the math. Virginia laughed, well aware that her son was going down his own path to solve the simple problems. In high school, John solved his teachers’ clunky proofs in just a few elegant steps. He was one of ten nationally awarded winners of the George Westinghose Award, which provided him with a full scholarship to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He hopped from engineering to chemistry before discovering his passion: mathematics.
He was accepted into Princeton University, which at the time was to mathematicians what Detroit was, and still is, to cars. Nash first wowed his peers with an elegantly playable board game, which his peers dubbed “Nash,” but later reached the market as Hex. He then absorbed himself in one of the sexiest math fields of the day, game theory, which described strategies in competition, whether in card games or business. His deceptively simple doctoral thesis would later re-orient the field of economics, although no one, not even Nash, predicted its potential.
Therapeutic effects of selumetinib on diffuse neurofibroma and optic pathway glioma in neurofibromatosis type 1
Selumetinib is approved for the treatment of inoperable plexiform neurofibromas (PN) in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). However, its efficacy in treating NF1-associated diffuse neurofibromas (NF1-DN) or optic pathway gliomas (NF1-OPG) remains unclear. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of selumetinib in these subgroups.
This was a sub-analysis of a Korean phase II open-label trial focusing on non-target treatment effects on NF1-DN and NF1-OPG. A total of 88 pediatric and adult patients with NF1-PN (59 children and 29 adults) in this trial had been treated for at least 2 years (~ 26 cycles, 28-day cycle) with oral selumetinib (20 or 25 mg/m², or 50 mg/dose every 12 h). Tumor volume, quality of life (QoL), and visual acuity were assessed.
Among the 88 included patients, NF1-DN was diagnosed in 25 (28%), and NF1-OPG in 3 (3%). All NF1-DN patients exhibited disfigurement, two experienced pain, and a partial response (PR; ≥20% tumor reduction at a single time) was achieved in 9 of these cases (36%). The median time to PR was 6 cycles (range, 6–12), and the median time to best response was 18 cycles (range, 6–26), with a median volume change of − 11.9% (range, − 55.4% to + 36.3%). Confirmed PR (cPR; PR sustained for 6 cycles) was observed in 6 NF1-DN patients (24%), stable disease (SD) was observed in 9 of these patients (36%), and progressive disease (PD) in 10 cases (40%). In a paired comparison, cPR was significantly lower for NF1-DN than for NF1-PN (24% vs. 88%, P 0.001), and the median best volume reduction was also smaller (− 11.9% vs. −42.1%, P 0.001). For the 3 NF1-OPG patients, visual impairment was present in all cases at baseline. One patient achieved PR at cycle 12 (− 36.