Category Archives: Medical research

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria increasingly leaving children vulnerable to common infections, global study finds

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Exclusive: Research spanning 82 countries finds antibiotic resistance increased in every region between 2004 and 2022

Harry Booth has had a rough run through Australia’s coldest months. The 13-year-old has been in and out of hospital with a range of common chest and urinary tract infections that his doctors find challenging to treat.

Harry was born with kidney failure and began dialysis at six months old, before receiving a kidney transplant from his father at age four. The surgery saved his life but comes with a trade-off: he now needs to take medications that suppress his immune system to prevent his body from rejecting the kidney.

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Sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time linked to higher risk of cancer death

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Study suggests even light activity such as ironing could reduce health risks linked to prolonged sedentary behaviour

Sitting for longer than half an hour at a time each day raises the risk of dying from cancer, a study suggests.

Researchers who tracked more than 90,000 people over a decade found that sitting or lying down while awake for more than 30 minutes in one period each day was associated with an increased risk of cancer death. The risk increases for every additional hour of continuous inactivity, the findings suggest.

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Lupus patients in England in remission after pioneering NHS trial of GM therapy

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Doctors say therapy that genetically modifies person’s T-cells could offer cure for chronic autoimmune disease

Five lupus patients in England are in remission after being treated with a revolutionary therapy that genetically modifies their own cells, in a medical breakthrough that could offer people a cure, doctors have said.

CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy involves removing a type of white blood cell also called T lymphocytes, which are crucial for hunting out infected or damaged cells, and engineering them to spot and destroy disease. The T-cells are then fed back into the patient via an infusion to reset their immune system.

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Richard Scolyer, cancer researcher and former Australian of the year, dies aged 59

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Scolyer, who did pioneering work on immunotherapy, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in 2023

Prof Richard Scolyer, the world-renowned cancer researcher and former Australian of the year, has died at the age of 59.

Scolyer’s family shared a statement the eminent pathologist and melanoma expert penned before his final stages of illness.

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Weight-loss drugs may prevent thousands of knee replacements, study suggests

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Patients with knee arthritis who took medications for at least three years at reduced risk of needing surgery

Taking weight-loss drugs for at least three years could prevent thousands of knee replacements a year, research suggests.

Globally, more than 500 million people have osteoarthritis. Knee arthritis is the most common form, affecting about 14 million people in the US and more than 5 million in the UK. Many will require knee surgery. In the UK more than 120,000 knee replacements are carried out every year.

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US is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say

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Hundreds of cases reported in the DRC after USAID has been dismantled and key scientific research canceled

A previously undetected outbreak of Ebola is coursing through parts of central Africa, and the US appears to be doing little to help stop it, after massive cuts to global and domestic public health efforts.

There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused two outbreaks in recent decades. Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it – but the US is notably absent in these efforts.

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‘We’re not ready’: US lags on pandemic preparedness after Covid, experts say

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Experts say slashed funding and growing misinformation are some of the greatest challenges facing public health

The hantavirus outbreak, while unlikely to spark the next big pandemic, is shining a spotlight on the ways public health has deteriorated in the US: its ability to test for rare diseases, its expertise on outbreak prevention and response, its ability to battle misinformation and restore trust.

“Assuming everything goes well in containing this outbreak, which I hope it does, the takeaway from that should not be ‘we’re fine,’” said Stephanie Psaki, former White House global health security coordinator. “We’re not ready for this type of threat.”

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Man produces sperm from testicular tissue frozen as a child in breakthrough trial

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Exclusive: Sperm re-transplant offers hope that boys left infertile by chemotherapy could have biological children one day

In a groundbreaking fertility trial, a man whose testicular tissue was frozen before he underwent chemotherapy as a child to be re-transplanted 16 years later has been able to produce sperm.

It is the first time a transplant of cryopreserved prepubertal testicular tissue has been demonstrated to restore sperm production in an adult patient. The 27-year-old man had the sample frozen when he was 10, before undergoing potent chemotherapy as part of treatment for sickle cell disease.

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Trial of non-invasive endometriosis scan boosts hopes for quicker diagnosis

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Results suggest radiotracer maraciclatide can ‘light up’ condition on scan and reduce need for investigative surgery

A non-invasive scan for endometriosis has shown promising results in a trial, boosting hopes for far quicker diagnosis.

The trial, which included 19 women with the condition, suggests that an experimental radiotracer, called maraciclatide, can “light up” endometriosis on a scan. The current need for a surgical investigation is seen as a major obstacle to timely diagnosis, with women in England typically waiting nearly a decade.

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Knee surgery for cartilage damage does not benefit patients, study suggests

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People with meniscus tears who underwent surgery had poorer knee function and worse osteoarthritis after 10 years than those who did not

A common knee surgery for cartilage damage does not benefit patients and may lead to worse outcomes, a 10-year trial suggests.

The study tracked outcomes for patients treated for a meniscus tear, who were given a partial meniscectomy, one of the most common orthopaedic surgeries. Their trajectories were compared with patients who had randomly been assigned to receive “sham surgery”, in which no procedure was carried out.

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Trump announces reforms to accelerate access to psychedelic drug treatments

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President signed executive order directing FDA to expedite review of psychedelic drugs including ibogaine

Donald Trump on Saturday announced reforms intended to speed up access to medical research and treatment based on psychedelic drugs.

The president signed an executive order directing the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite review of drugs such as ibogaine, which US military veteran groups have said can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

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GSK reports promising early results in ovarian and womb cancer drug trial

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Mo-Rez reduced or eliminated tumours in over 60% of patients and is expected to be a blockbuster drug

GSK has revealed positive results for a treatment for gynaecological cancers as its chief executive, Luke Miels, seeks to speed up drug development at the group.

The company said that in an early-stage trial Mocertatug Rezetecan, known as Mo-Rez, shrank or eliminated tumours in 62% of patients with ovarian cancer where chemotherapy had failed, and in 67% of those with endometrial cancer.

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How you walk reveals to others how you are feeling, researchers say

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Study highlights the movements in people’s gait that give away most about their emotional state

A long face is not the only sign that someone is down in the dumps. How people walk is revealing too, particularly the swing of the arms and legs, researchers say.

Scientists asked volunteers to guess people’s emotions from video clips of them walking and found that bigger swings portrayed more aggression while smaller swings implied fear and sadness.

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Cannabis is not an effective treatment for common mental health conditions, says review

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International researchers find ‘very little evidence’ medical form of the drug can treat anxiety, anorexia and other disorders

Cannabis is not an effective treatment for common mental health conditions despite the global surge in patients using it for that purpose, a review has found.

Researchers concluded there was “very little evidence for its efficacy” in treating anxiety, anorexia nervosa, psychotic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder or opioid use disorder.

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Weight-loss drugs could prevent fatal complications from heart attacks, UK study finds

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Latest research based on animal model trials shows GLP-1 drugs may prevent problem of ‘no-reflow’ in recovery

Weight-loss drugs could help people who have had a heart attack avoid suffering potentially fatal complications afterwards, research has found.

Drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy reduce the risk of the tissue damage that affects up to half of the 100,000 people a year in the UK who suffer a heart attack, according to the study.

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Rising anger over ‘lop-sided’ and ‘immoral’ US health funding pacts with African countries

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Zimbabwe refuses to sign agreement and Kenya faces a court case over data sharing as new aid deals come under scrutiny

A series of bilateral health agreements being negotiated between African countries and the administration of President Donald Trump have been labelled “clearly lop-sided” and “immoral” amid growing outrage at US demands, including countries being forced to share biological resources and data.

It emerged this week that Zimbabwe had halted negotiations with the US for $350m (£258m) of health funding, saying the proposals risked undermining its sovereignty and independence.

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New drug could be a breakthrough in treatment for killer TB, trial suggests

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Sorfequiline shows stronger action than existing treatments against illness that killed 1.23 million last year

A new treatment for tuberculosis could boost cure rates and shorten the time needed to treat the disease by months, trial results suggest.

Globally, an estimated 10.7 million people fell ill with TB last year and 1.23 million died from it.

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US to demand countries share data on ‘pathogens with epidemic potential’ in return for health aid

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Draft template seen by the Guardian has no reference to countries receiving benefits for sharing information, such as guaranteed access to medicines developed as a result

The US wants countries to agree to hand over information on bugs that could cause large-scale disease outbreaks in return for restoring aid to tackle health problems such as HIV and malaria, according to government documents.

The Trump administration is seeking new bilateral aid agreements with dozens of countries, after an abrupt withdrawal from existing arrangements at the start of this year. The agreements form part of a new America First Global Health Strategy announced in September.

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Lab monkeys on loose after Mississippi crash were disease-free, university says

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Three monkeys remain at large and are being searched for, officials said after initially reporting they were infectious

A group of monkeys being transported on a Mississippi highway that escaped captivity on Tuesday after the truck carrying them overturned did not carry a dangerous infectious disease, a university has said.

The truck was carrying rhesus monkeys, which typically weigh around 16lb (7.7kg) and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet.

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Napoleon’s soldiers who died in Russian retreat had unexpected diseases, study finds

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Analysis of DNA from teeth of troops buried in mass grave suggests soldiers had paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever

When Napoleon ordered his army to retreat from Russia in October 1812, disaster ensued. Starving, cold, exhausted and struggling with sickness, an estimated 300,000 soldiers died.

Researchers now say they have identified two unexpected diseases among soldiers who died in the retreat – paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever – which provide fresh insights into their plight.

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