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☆ Doctors Say Diagnosis of Catherine’s Cancer Is a Familiar Scenario
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-22 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Although it is not known what type of cancer Princess Catherine has, oncologists say that what she described in her public statement that was released on Friday — discovering a cancer during another procedure, in this case a “major abdominal surgery” — is all too common. “Unfortunately, so much of the cancer we diagnose is unexpected,” said Dr. Elena Ratner, a gynecologic oncologist at Yale Cancer Center who has diagnosed many patients with ovarian cancer, uterine cancer and cancers of the lining of the uterus. Often, Dr. Ratner says, the assumption is that the endometriosis has appeared on an ovary and caused a benign ovarian cyst. But one to two weeks later, when the supposedly benign tissue has been studied, pathologists report that they found cancer. In the statement, Princess Catherine said she was is getting “a course of preventive chemotherapy.”That, too, is common.

Persons: Princess Catherine, ”, Elena Ratner, Ratner Organizations: Yale Cancer Center

☆ King Charles’s Prostate Treatment Is Common Among Men His Age
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

King Charles III will have a procedure to address an enlarged prostate at a hospital next week. The 75-year-old British monarch’s diagnosis is common among men his age, and experts say that typical treatments are not dangerous. An enlarged prostate, known also as benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH, is a noncancerous condition that occurs frequently among older men. By age 60, more than half of men have at least mild BPH symptoms, which include difficulty urinating and a sense of urgency to urinate. The same thing happens in men, Dr. Albertsen said, and at the same age.

Persons: King Charles III, Peter Albertsen, Albertsen, ” Organizations: University of Connecticut

☆ Innovative Cancer Treatment May Sometimes Cause Cancer, F.D.A. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Cancer specialists said the treatments have saved the lives of thousands of patients with blood cancers. And, he said, “I haven’t seen a single one” develop a new T cell cancer. When patients’ T cells are engineered to make proteins that attack cancer cells, a virus helps slip new genes into T cell DNA. Even without chemotherapy or radiation, Dr. Maus added, patients with blood cell cancers are especially susceptible to developing other blood cell cancers. But Dr. DiPersio said, “it is more of a smoking gun.”The F.D.A.

Persons: Marcela V, Maus, John DiPersio, Louis, “, ”, DiPersio, —, . Maus Organizations: Massachusetts General Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine Locations: Massachusetts, St

☆ Sickle-Cell Treatment Created With Gene Editing Wins U.K. Approval
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Regulators in Britain on Thursday approved the first treatment derived from CRISPR, the revolutionary gene-editing method. Called Casgevy, the treatment is intended to cure sickle-cell disease and a related condition, beta thalassemia. The companies anticipate that the Food and Drug Administration will approve Casgevy for sickle-cell patients in the United States in early December. The agency will decide on approval for beta thalassemia next year. That treatment does not rely on gene editing, insteading using a method that inserts new DNA into the genome.

Organizations: Vertex Pharmaceuticals, CRISPR Therapeutics, and Drug, Bluebird Bio Locations: Britain, Boston, Switzerland, United States, Somerville, Mass

☆ V.A. Recruits Millionth Veteran for Its Genetic Research Database
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

says its database offers a more diverse population: 175,000 people with African ancestry and 80,000 Hispanics joined the Million Veteran Program. For example, said Dr. Sumitra Muralidhar, director of the Million Veteran Program, researchers found genes linked to having flashbacks of traumatic events, a feature of post-traumatic stress. Although researchers can examine genetic and other data and links to medical records, fewer than 10 people at the V.A. Those records, Dr. Muralidhar said, are held at a facility in Boston that is “heavily secured.”What It Looks Like: Veterans hope the database will help. hospital told Octavia Harris, 60, of San Antonio, about the Million Veteran Program.

Persons: ”, Shereef Elnahal, “, Amit V, Sumitra Muralidhar, Muralidhar, Octavia Harris, Harris Organizations: Employees, Department sVeterans Affairs, Million, Massachusetts General Hospital, Million Veteran, Navy Locations: Europe, Massachusetts, Boston, San Antonio

☆ New Gene Editing Treatment Cuts Dangerous Cholesterol in Small Study
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The handful of patients had severe heart disease that had caused chest pain and heart attacks. After trying available cholesterol-lowering medications, they could not get their cholesterol as low as cardiologists recommended. So they volunteered for an experimental cholesterol-lowering treatment using gene editing that was unlike anything tried in patients before. Each had a genetic abnormality, familial hypercholesterolemia, that affects around one million people in the United States. In the United States alone, more than 800,000 people have heart attacks each year.

Organizations: Verve Therapeutics, American Heart Association Locations: Boston, United States

☆ F.D.A. Approves New Obesity Drug That Will Compete With Wegovy
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an obesity drug from the company Eli Lilly that will be a direct competitor to the wildly popular Wegovy. The drug is called tirzepatide and will be sold under the name Zepbound. Patients who used tirzepatide lost an average of 18 percent of their body weight, according to the F.D.A., when it was taken at its highest dose in a drug trial. That’s compared with Wegovy, manufactured by Novo Nordisk, which produced an average 15 percent weight loss. approved Zepbound for people with obesity and for those who are overweight and have at least one obesity-related condition.

Persons: Eli Lilly, tirzepatide Organizations: Drug Administration, Novo Nordisk

☆ Panel Says That Innovative Sickle Cell Cure Is Safe Enough for Patients
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Family members are affected too — they may need to take time off work during the most intensive phase of the treatment. Additionally, most Americans with sickle cell are Black and may not trust a health care system that has often failed to provide the most basic preventive and therapeutic care for those with the disease. Some with sickle cell are anxious about undergoing a medical treatment that is on the cutting edge of biotechnology. “We are finally at a spot where we can envision broadly available cures for sickle cell disease,” said Dr. John Tisdale, director of the cellular and molecular therapeutics branch at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and a member of the advisory committee. Kyra is now in intensive care as doctors try to control her pain.

Persons: It’s, ”, John Tisdale, Dana Jones, San Antonio, Kyra Organizations: Blood Institute

☆ F.D.A. Experts Will Vote on Safety of a Cure for Sickle Cell Disease
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

An estimated 100,000 people in the United States have sickle cell disease, most of whom have African ancestry. will decide on another application for sickle cell gene therapy made by Bluebird Bio. Two other companies and an academic center, Boston Children’s Hospital, are testing their own sickle cell gene therapies. While these therapies could reduce the suffering of sickle cell patients in the United States and other wealthy countries, there is an even greater need for them in some developing countries like Nigeria. One company, Beam, is testing a way to provide gene editing that requires nothing more than a single infusion in a doctor’s office.

Persons: “, Mariah Jacqueline Scott, Scott, ”, Stephan Grupp, What’s Organizations: Institute for Clinical, CRISPR Therapeutics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Bluebird, Boston Children’s Hospital Locations: United States, Highland Park, N.J, Boston, Nigeria

☆ Ozempic and Wegovy Don’t Cost What You Think They Do
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-22 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A recent paper published by the American Enterprise Institute revealed that the net prices for the new obesity drugs are just a fraction of the published annual list prices. And while the drugs’ prices remain out of reach for many, economists anticipate they will soon be driven down. More than a dozen companies are developing obesity drugs. As they enter the market, greater choice is expected to make prices plummet, as has happened with other expensive drugs. Those revenues are based on the net prices.

Persons: ”, Jalpa Doshi, Ippolito, Joseph F, Levy Organizations: American Enterprise Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Investors, Novo Nordisk, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Health Locations: Denmark, Novo

☆ Windows Installed in Skulls Help Doctors Study Damaged Brains
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He’d fractured his skull, and a large blood clot formed on the left side of his head. Surgeons had to remove a large chunk of his skull to relieve pressure on his brain and to remove the clot. “Getting a piece of my skull taken out was crazy to me,” Mr. Marr said. “I almost felt like I’d lost a piece of me.”But what seemed even crazier to him was the way that piece was restored. His prosthesis, which is covered by his skin, is embedded with an acrylic window that would let doctors peer into his brain with ultrasound.

Persons: Tucker, He’d, ” Mr, Marr, “, I’d, . Marr Organizations: Surgeons, Deloitte

☆ We Know Where New Weight Loss Drugs Came From, but Not Why They Work
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Every so often a drug comes along that has the potential to change the world. Medical specialists say the latest to offer that possibility are the new drugs that treat obesity — Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and more that may soon be coming onto the market. Obesity affects nearly 42 percent of American adults, and yet, Dr. Engel said, “we have been powerless.” Research into potential medical treatments for the condition led to failures. While other drugs discovered in recent decades for diseases like cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s were found through a logical process that led to clear targets for drug designers, the path that led to the obesity drugs was not like that. Researchers discovered by accident that exposing the brain to a natural hormone at levels never seen in nature elicited weight loss.

Persons: —, ”, Jonathan Engel, Engel Organizations: Baruch College Locations: New York

☆ 3 Factors Keeping Americans From New Weight-Loss Drugs
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

That’s the median weight loss experienced by people who take Wegovy, a drug from Novo Nordisk. Many patients started by taking Ozempic, a diabetes drug also by Novo Nordisk that led to weight loss as a side effect. Mounjaro, made by Eli Lilly and approved for treating diabetes, is expected to be approved soon for obesity. While price and insurance coverage pose problems for patients, health economists expect prices to come down as more drugs are approved and companies face competition. Medicare is forbidden by law to pay for weight-loss drugs, although there is an intense lobbying effort to change that.

Persons: Eli Lilly, David A, Eli Lilly’s, “, ”, Ania, Robert F, Kushner Organizations: Novo Nordisk, Duke University, Yale University, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, “ Locations: Novo

☆ Flipping a Switch and Making Cancers Self-Destruct
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Within every cancer are molecules that spur deadly, uncontrollable growth. What if scientists could hook those molecules to others that make cells self-destruct? Could the very drivers of a cancer’s survival instead activate the program for its destruction? “It’s very cool,” said Jason Gestwicki, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco. “It turns something the cancer cell needs to stay alive into something that kills it, like changing your vitamin into a poison.”

Persons: Gerald Crabtree, ”, Crabtree, Nathanael S, Gray, “, Jason Gestwicki Organizations: Stanford, redwoods, Foghorn Therapeutics, University of California Locations: Santa Cruz, San Francisco

LeBron James Jr., the son of the N.B.A. star LeBron James, suffered a cardiac arrest while practicing at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on Monday and was taken to the hospital for treatment in the intensive care unit, according to a statement from a spokesman for LeBron James and his wife, Savannah. The younger James, known as Bronny, is now in stable condition and no longer in the I.C.U., the statement said. “LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the U.S.C. He is the eldest of the Lakers star LeBron James’s three children.

Persons: LeBron James Jr, LeBron James, James, LeBron, Bronny James, LeBron James’s Organizations: University of Southern, Los Angeles Fire Department, Street, Galen Center, U.S.C, Lakers, Ohio State Locations: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Savannah, Oregon

☆ A Mystery in the E.R.? Ask Dr. Chatbot for a Diagnosis.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Gina Kolata | More About Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The patient was a 39-year-old woman who had come to the emergency department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. On a recent steamy Friday, Dr. Megan Landon, a medical resident, posed this real case to a room full of medical students and residents. They were gathered to learn a skill that can be devilishly tricky to teach — how to think like a doctor. “Doctors are terrible at teaching other doctors how we think,” said Dr. Adam Rodman, an internist, a medical historian and an organizer of the event at Beth Israel Deaconess. But this time, they could call on an expert for help in reaching a diagnosis — GPT-4, the latest version of a chatbot released by the company OpenAI.

Persons: Megan Landon, ”, Adam Rodman, Beth Israel Deaconess Organizations: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical, Beth Locations: Boston

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