Category: 8. Health

Researchers at City of Hope^®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States with its National Medical Center ranked among the nation’s top cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, today published a new study which found that some survivors of childhood cancer are more at risk for serious health issues as they grow older, including new cancers and chronic conditions like heart disease. 

While a cause for concern, the findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology also point to a silver lining: The ailments are potentially manageable if caught early and treated.

Our study underscores the importance of partnership among patients, their primary care providers and cancer survivorship programs to ensure survivors receive necessary screening for the early detection, prevention and treatment of conditions, including secondary cancers, resulting from lifesaving treatment. We at City of Hope are continuing to learn more about what health conditions survivors of childhood cancer are at risk for at different times in their life to inform the updating of evidence-based guidelines for cancer survivors.”

Rusha Bhandari, M.D., pediatric hematologist-oncologist at City of Hope and corresponding author of the new study

The City of Hope-led study is the first to look at childhood cancer survivors who reached the age of 50, a population that is expected to grow as cancer treatments continue to improve and become more targeted and personalized. 

Nearly 15,000 children and adolescents in the United States are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or other types of cancer each year. The rate of young patients surviving cancer for at least five years is now 85%, up from 58% a few decades ago. 

To determine long-term risks, Dr. Bhandari, Saro Armenian, D.O., M.P.H., a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at City of Hope Children’s Cancer Center, and their colleagues reviewed a national database that tracks about 40,000 people who were diagnosed with cancer before they turned 21. The researchers identified individuals who were still alive at age 50 and then compared any new incidence of cancer with the rate of cancer found in the general population. The risks for chronic health conditions were compared to the patients’ siblings. 

Having overcome cancer at an early age, survivors face new risks when they turn older, the study found. Young patients have a higher risk of secondary cancers and are five times more likely to die from the disease compared to other individuals over the age of 50.

Cancer survivors face increased risks for heart disease as well. In fact, pediatric cancer survivors had a higher incidence of heart problems at age 55 compared to their 70-year-old siblings. They were also more frail, had trouble with physical exertion and suffered poorer health in general. 

Looking at the type of cancer treatment survivors had received, the team found that radiation therapy was the main culprit for future risks, rather than chemotherapy. 

“Radiation causes cellular DNA damage that can lead to mutations and the development of new cancers,” said Dr. Armenian, senior author of the study. 

The study was based on treatment regimens used in the 1970s and 80s. There have been vast improvements since then, including delaying or avoiding radiation in favor of targeted cancer drugs and emerging treatments such as immunotherapy and precision oncology. Still, Dr. Bhandari urges greater vigilance to protect against future health problems. 

“Some survivors should screen for conditions like breast or colon cancer at an earlier age than is recommended for the general population,” Dr. Armenian said. “Teamwork is needed to ensure survivors receive necessary screening and preventative care for conditions, including secondary cancers.”

While young cancer patients faced more health problems as they got older, the study did find a bright spot when it came to mental health. Cancer survivors were no more likely to report mental health issues than their siblings at age 50. 

“This mental health finding may reflect the resilience and positive mindset of our long-term survivors who have battled cancer,” Dr. Bhandari said. “This is a wonderful example of how our patients continue to inspire us as they navigate their cancer and survivorship journeys.”

When cells expire, they leave behind an activity log of sorts: RNA expelled into blood plasma that reveal changes in gene expression, cellular signaling, tissue injury and other biological processes.

Cornell University researchers developed machine-learning models that can sift through this cell-free RNA and identify key biomarkers for myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The approach could lead to the development of diagnostic testing for a debilitating disease that has proved challenging to confirm in patients because its symptoms can be easily confused with those of other illnesses.

The findings were published Aug. 11 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The lead author is Anne Gardella, a doctoral student in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology in the De Vlaminck lab.

The project was a collaboration between the labs of co-senior authors Iwijn De Vlaminck, associate professor of biomedical engineering in Cornell Engineering, and Maureen Hanson, Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

By reading the molecular fingerprints that cells leave behind in blood, we’ve taken a concrete step toward a test for ME/CFS. This study shows that a tube of blood can provide clues about the disease’s biology.”

Iwijn De Vlaminck, associate professor of biomedical engineering, Cornell Engineering

De Vlaminck’s lab previously used the cell-free RNA technique to identify the presence of Kawasaki disease and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) – puzzling inflammatory conditions that have also proved difficult to diagnose. After hearing De Vlaminck deliver a presentation about a project involving cell-free DNA, Hanson, who studies the pathophysiology of ME/CFS, reached out about a potential collaboration.

Using cell-free RNA to measure system-wide cellular turnover in patients is a relatively new concept, and it seemed particularly well-suited for unraveling the mystery of ME/CFS.

“ME/CFS affects a lot of different parts of the body,” said Hanson, who directs the Cornell Center for Enervating NeuroImmune Disease (ENID). “The nervous system, immune system, cardiovascular system. Analyzing plasma gives you access to what’s going on in those different parts.”

There are no laboratory diagnostic tests for ME/CFS, so doctors must rely on a range of symptoms, such as exhaustion, dizziness, disturbed sleep and “brain fog.”

“The problem is a lot of the symptoms that a patient might come to a primary care physician complaining about could be many different things,” Hanson. “And what that primary care physician would really like to have would be a blood test.”

Blood samples were collected from ME/CFS patients and a control group of healthy, albeit sedentary, people. Then De Vlaminck’s team spun down the blood plasma to isolate and then sequence the RNA molecules that had been released during cellular damage and death.

They identified more than 700 significantly different transcripts between the ME/CFS cases and the control group. Those results were parsed by different machine-learning algorithms to develop a classifying tool that revealed signs of immune system dysregulation, extracellular matrix disorganization and T cell exhaustion in ME/CFS patients.

Using statistical analysis methods, they were able to map where the RNA molecules originated by deconvolving the patterns of gene expression based on known cell type-specific marker genes, as determined from a previous ME/CFS single-cell RNA sequencing study from the Grimson Lab at Cornell.

“We identified six cell types that were significantly different between ME/CFS cases and controls,” Gardella said. “The topmost elevated cell type in patients is the plasmacytoid dendritic cell. These are immune cells that are involved in producing type 1 interferons, which could indicate an overactive or prolonged antiviral immune response in patients. We also observed differences in monocytes, platelets and other T cell subsets, pointing to broad immune dysregulation in ME/CFS patients”

The cell-free RNA classifier models had 77% accuracy in detecting ME/CFS – not high enough for a diagnostic test yet, but a substantial leap forward in the field. The researchers are hopeful the approach can help them understand the complex biology behind other chronic illnesses, as well as differentiating ME/CFS from long COVID.

“While long COVID has raised awareness of infection-associated chronic conditions, it’s important to recognize ME/CFS, because it’s actually more common and more severe than many people might realize,” Gardella said. 

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the WE&ME Foundation. 

A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found big increases in the use of continuous glucose monitoring and insulin delivery devices by children and adults with type 1 diabetes over a 15-year period, with corresponding jumps in optimal blood-sugar control.

For their study, the researchers used a large national database of de-identified electronic health records to analyze nearly 200,000 individuals with type 1 diabetes across five three-year periods from 2009 to 2023. The research team tracked individuals’ adoption of continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pump devices, as well as blood tests. 

From the 2009–2011 period to the 2021–2023 period, the proportion of individuals under 18 with optimal glucose control rose from 7% to 19%-a 171% increase-while the proportion of adults with optimal control rose from 21% to 28%-a 33% increase. The researchers used a standard blood test for the percentage of hemoglobin bound by glucose (HbA1c) to measure glucose control. A test result below 7% is recommended to prevent long-term complications.

From the first period to the last period, the proportion of type 1 diabetes patients using continuous glucose monitoring devices rose from 4% to 82% among youths under 18-a more than twentyfold increase-and from 5% to 57% among adults-more than a tenfold increase. The proportion of patients using insulin pumps during these periods rose from 16% to 50% among youths and 11% to 29% among adults. The concurrent use of both devices also increased dramatically during this period, from 1% to 47% among youths and from 1% to 22% among adults.

The study was published online August 11 in JAMA Network Open.

Improving glucose control in patients with type 1 diabetes has been challenging, so these big increases are exciting for the field. These improvements have likely been driven by the widespread adoption of new monitoring and delivery technologies.”

Michael Fang, PhD, MHS, study first author, assistant professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology

About 2 million Americans, including 304,000 children and adolescents, have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. The once-fatal autoimmune disorder typically strikes in childhood when immune cells, often triggered by a viral infection, mistakenly attack and wipe out insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Insulin, discovered and introduced clinically in the 1920s, was a game-changer for individuals with type 1 diabetes. The standard treatment involved insulin injections after meals. This kept patients alive, but glucose control was not always stable or reliable. In recent decades, continuous blood glucose monitoring devices and insulin pumps have allowed patients to optimize blood glucose levels throughout the day. 

The sample used for the analysis totaled 186,590 individuals with type 1 diabetes, including 159,737 adults and 26,853 patients under 18. 

The findings varied by race and insurance type, with non-Hispanic white patients and those with commercial health insurance having higher rates of technology adoption and glucose control. Among individuals under 18 in the 2021–2023 period, 21% of non-Hispanic white patients had glucose control, versus 17% of Hispanic and 12% of non-Hispanic Black patients. 

The researchers say that policies that make it easier for type 1 diabetes patients to access devices such as continuous glucose monitoring devices could help reduce these disparities.

“While we should be celebrating the improvements, we must remember that most patients with type 1 diabetes don’t have optimal glucose control, and there is a lot of room for improvement,” says study senior author Jung-Im Shin, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology.

The team plans to use the same vast health-records database for further studies of type 1 diabetes patients and trends in common complications such as cardiovascular and kidney disease. 

“Trends and Disparities in Technology Use and Glycemic Control in Type 1 Diabetes” was co-authored by Michael Fang, Yunwen Xu, Shoshana Ballew, Josef Coresh, Justin Echouffo Tcheugui, Elizabeth Selvin, and Jung-Im Shin.

Support for the research was provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (K24 HL152440) and the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K01 DK138273, R01 DK115534, R01 DK139324).

According to the American Brain Tumor Association, glioblastomas represent about 14% of all primary brain tumours, with approximately 12,000 to 14,000 new cases being diagnosed in the United States annually. While the disease is one of the most malignant and common types of brain tumours, its signs are often left unnoticed.The tumour, which occurs when the supportive cells in the brain grow and divide uncontrollably, is extremely fatal, and most patients survive only for 14 to 16 months post-diagnosis.Now, Dr Joseph Georges, a neurosurgeon based in Phoenix, has revealed 5 early warning signs for glioblastoma with The Post. “What makes glioblastoma particularly difficult to treat is its highly invasive nature — it spreads microscopic cancer cells deep into surrounding brain tissue, making it impossible to remove completely with surgery,” he added.

What are the risk factors for Glioblastoma?

While the disease affects adults between 45 and 70 years, the average age of its diagnosis is 64. Some genetic disorders, such as Turcot syndrome and Lynch syndrome, along with exposure to ionising radiation as a part of radiation therapy for other cancers, can increase the risk of glioblastoma.

What are the symptoms of Glioblastoma?

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The symptoms of the cancer can differ on the basis of the tumour’s location in the skull. According to Georges, the symptoms may include headaches, confusion, seizures, speech difficulty or weakness in one side of the body.

How is Glioblastoma diagnosed?

The existence of a tumour can be identified with a CT scan or MRI, with the diagnosis being confirmed with a tissue biopsy. “Several factors influence how long a person might live with glioblastoma,” Georges said, “including their overall health, neurological function at diagnosis, age and how well they respond to treatments such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.”

How is Glioblastoma treated?

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Tumours that start elsewhere in the body and spread to the brain tend to form masses that are better defined than glioblastoma and thus easily removed surgically. These are called metastatic brain tumours.“Glioblastoma’s diffuse growth pattern, genetic complexity and resistance to standard treatments make it one of the most challenging brain tumours to treat,” Georges noted.“Complete removal is usually not achievable due to the tumour’s infiltrative nature.”After radiation therapy, surgery is followed to remove the residual tumour cells and delay progression and chemotherapy is administered to enhance the effectiveness of radiation.

August 12, 2025