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More than 70 percent of adults 50 and older say they experience pain in their joints from arthritis. And for many older adults, that pain occurs in the knees.

But a new study finds that a few simple tools can help tame these aches. When researchers combed through existing studies on nondrug treatments that provide the most relief for knee osteoarthritis, knee braces, water therapy (or water exercise) and traditional exercise came out on top.

For the study, published June 18 in PLOS One, researchers analyzed 139 randomized control trials spanning 9,644 people with knee osteoarthritis and evaluated 12 nondrug treatments, including laser therapies, ultrasound, water exercise, knee braces, traditional exercise and taping.

Knee braces were the most effective at lowering pain, improving function and easing stiffness, the researchers found. Hydrotherapy, or water exercise, relieved pain, while traditional workouts improved pain and physical function.

Finding ways to manage symptoms from a menu of options

David A. Wang, M.D., a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, says he isn’t surprised that knee braces, hydrotherapy and exercise were the top performers in the meta-analysis. They all put less pressure on the knee, which can ease pain and improve function, he explains. But just because these therapies ranked high in the research doesn’t mean they will work for everyone.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all for arthritis,” Wang says.

It’s important to note that there’s no cure for knee osteoarthritis other than a total knee replacement. For those looking to avoid or delay surgery, all you can do otherwise is manage symptoms, Wang says.

Many people manage their symptoms by treating their knee pain with medications, such as over-the-counter anti-inflammatories. But the study’s authors note that anti-inflammatory drugs are linked to gastrointestinal and cardiovascular issues in older adults.

Topical treatments and corticosteroid injections can also help, says Tom Kernozek, a professor and chair of physical therapy at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. And working with a physical therapist can improve your knee strength and lead you to tools, such as braces or shoe inserts, that may bring relief.

Another pivotal intervention: weight loss. A study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology found that for older adults with knee osteoarthritis, losing 1 pound of weight removed 4 pounds of pressure from the knees. 

“Weight loss is a very important part of osteoarthrosis management,” Wang says. Along with exercise, it gives the “most bang for our buck.” Of course, it can take time to shed pounds, just as it can take time to get stronger from exercise, he adds.

Researchers at McMaster University, Cleveland Clinic and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center have uncovered how a protein long associated with Alzheimer’s disease helps lung cancer spread to the brain – a discovery that offers hope that existing Alzheimer’s drugs could be repurposed in preventing cancer’s spread.

The study, published in Science Translational Medicine on July 2, 2025, details how the protein (BACE1) is instrumental in the development of brain metastases – tumours that spread to the brain from cancers originating elsewhere in the body – in people with lung cancer. These tumours occur in up to 40 per cent of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

“We’ve always associated BACE1 with Alzheimer’s disease, so to find it playing a major role in lung cancer brain metastases is an important discovery,” says senior author Sheila Singh, director of McMaster’s Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research and professor with the Department of Surgery. “It’s a reminder that cancer can hijack biological pathways in ways we don’t yet fully understand.”

To make the discovery, researchers used a cutting-edge gene activation technique known as a genome-wide in vivo CRISPR activation screen. The technique allowed researchers to systematically activate thousands of genes one by one in lung cancer cells and put the modified cells into mice. When BACE1 was switched on, the cancer cells were far more likely to invade the brain.

BACE1 has long been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. In people with Alzheimer’s, BACE1 cuts a protein called APP, triggering the formation of sticky plaques in the brain.

Currently, there are limited therapies available once cancer has spread to the brain. However, researchers say the discovery of BACE1 does offer hope as a drug developed for Alzheimer’s could be repurposed.

The therapy uses a drug called Verubecestat that blocks BACE1 activity. Researchers found that mice given Verubecestat had fewer and smaller tumours, and also lived longer. The drug had shown promise in Alzheimer’s patients but a Phase 3 clinical trial was discontinued in 2018 after a committee determined it was unlikely that positive benefit/risk could be established.

“The discovery of BACE1 opens the door to repurposing existing treatments like Verubecestat to potentially prevent or slow the spread of lung cancer to the brain, where treatment options are currently very limited,” Singh says.

The team say more research is needed to better understand the effectiveness of the therapy in preventing the spread of lung cancer to the brain.

“This study highlights how interdisciplinary partnerships can lead to breakthroughs in understanding and treating devastating diseases like brain metastases,” said Shideng Bao, a researcher in Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Cancer Biology, a corresponding author on the paper. “By identifying BACE1 as a key player in the spread of lung cancer to the brain, we’ve uncovered a promising new avenue for therapeutic intervention that could ultimately improve outcomes for patients.”

The Sheila Singh Lab collaborated with Cleveland Clinic and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center on the research. Singh and her colleagues are world leaders in brain cancer research, previously discovering a pathway used by cancer cells to infiltrate the brain, as well as new therapeutic approaches.

The study was supported by funding from the Boris Family Fund for Brain Metastasis Research, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Lerner Research Institute, and a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship.

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Interested in covering this research?

• Senior author Sheila Singh, director of McMaster’s Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research and professor with the Department of Surgery, can be reached directly at [email protected].

For any other information, contact Adam Ward, media relations officer with McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences at [email protected].

New findings published Wednesday by the National Cancer Institute link tiny, toxic air pollutants to changes in lung cancer tumors at the genomic level in people who have never smoked. 

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., and the American Cancer Society reports that more people die of lung cancer every year than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined. Non-smokers account for 10 to 25 percent of all lung cancer cases globally, but research on its causes in patients who have never smoked is less well established than for their tobacco-using counterparts, said the new study’s senior author, Maria Teresa Landi. 

“We wanted to design a study to try to define the causes of lung cancer in never smokers so that we could potentially provide some suggestions for the improvement of prevention, early detection, therapy, etc,” Landi said. 

In their study, published in the journal Nature, Landi and colleagues from the National Institutes of Health’s NCI and the University of California San Diego analyzed the lung tumors of 871 nonsmokers from 28 locations across four continents. They found that the tumors of patients in highly polluted areas had many more genetic mutations than those in areas with cleaner air, and exhibited a diversity of mutations, including patterns typically found in smokers. 

The paper is part of a larger project Landi is leading on lung cancer in nonsmokers, called the Sherlock-Lung study. 

Air pollution is a serious public health hazard growing more dire as climate change brings increased wildfires, drought and extreme heat. The American Lung Association found earlier this year that nearly half of the country is living with dangerous levels of pollution, a drastic rise from last year’s figures. Air pollution is linked to a variety of health harms and was already considered the second leading cause of lung cancer.

The paper adds to well-established links between particulate air pollution and the disease, particularly in epidemiological research, which deals with patterns of disease at the population level. Wednesday’s study takes a different approach, building on genomic research and zooming in on the tumor level. 

George Thurston, a professor of medicine and population health at New York University, has been a leading scholar on the impacts of air pollution on human health for decades. 

The new NIH study, which he was not involved in, could play an important role in determining exactly which kinds of particulate matter impact human health, and how, he said. 

“It’s environmental detective work,” Thurston said. “These kinds of tools will help us understand better the results we’re getting from epidemiology.”

Notably, the study found a stronger increase in mutations due to air pollution than from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. The authors noted that this gap may have been exacerbated by the unreliability of survey data from patients, who self-report their exposure to secondhand smoke with varying accuracy. 

“I feel like I’m in the Matrix, and I’m the only one that took the red pill.” I know what’s going on, and everybody else is walking around thinking, ‘This stuff isn’t bad for your health.’”

— George Thurston, New York University School of Medicine

Thurston pointed out that although secondhand smoke is also a serious health concern, air pollution from fossil fuels is much more ubiquitous.  

“We are engulfed in fossil-fuel-burning pollution every single day of our lives, all day long, night and day,” he said. 

Sometimes, he tracks the air pollution on his commute to work using a portable air monitor to dismaying results, and wonders why more people around him don’t seem equally alarmed.

“I feel like I’m in the Matrix, and I’m the only one that took the red pill,” he said, referring to the sci-fi movie. “I know what’s going on, and everybody else is walking around thinking, ‘This stuff isn’t bad for your health.’”

The NIH study looked specifically at patients of European and East Asian descent—mostly in Europe, North America and Asia. Landi said future studies aim to expand focus to include participants from Latin America, Africa and Australia. 

The paper found some geographic differences in mutations, like the strong presence of a particular gene mutation found almost exclusively in subjects in Taiwan and associated with exposure to aristolochic acid, a plant-based substance used in some forms of traditional medicine. The substance has previously been linked to bladder, liver and kidney cancers, but the authors believe theirs is the first evidence linking it to lung cancer.

The study adds to recent research on environmental and climate impacts on lung health. A paper published in Nature in March found that global warming may be contributing to dehydration and inflammation in human airways that could exacerbate lung diseases, and suggested that most Americans will face increased risk of airway inflammation by the second half of this century.

Meanwhile, the federal government is gutting funding for research—including at the NIH—studying the impacts of climate change on health and the disparate effects of pollution along social markers like race and gender.

The NIH study also comes out just one day after the U.S. Senate voted to pass a reconciliation bill that would axe incentives to cut emissions, provide subsidies for health-harming fossil fuels like coal and simultaneously eliminate health care for millions of lower-income Americans through about $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Advocates raising the alarm on the health ramifications of air pollution point to dire consequences as a result of these moves.

Continued fossil fuel combustion leads to more air pollution, while also spawning weather that exacerbates the problem, resulting in greater health care costs, more illness and more deaths. 

“Many elements of this bill will make Americans sicker, but the bill will also make it more expensive, if not impossible, for millions of Americans to get health care,” wrote Moms Clean Air Force’s federal policy director, Melody Reis, in a statement.