Another U.S. military mini shuttle blasted off Thursday night to conduct classified experiments in space.
Launched by SpaceX, the space plane with no one aboard took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It’s the eighth such flight for the test vehicles known as X-37B. This one will test laser communications and safe navigation without GPS, according to the U.S. Space Force.
It’s not yet clear how long the mini shuttle will remain aloft. The last X-37B circled the globe for a little over a year before returning to Earth in March. Previous missions have lasted months to years.
The Boeing-made reusable space planes were first launched in 2010 and are 29 feet (9 meters) long with a wingspan of almost 15 feet (4.5 meters).
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AP science writer Adithi Ramakrishnan contributed.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The health burden and racial-ethnic disparities of air pollution from the major oil and gas lifecycle stages in the United States Stockholm Environment Institute
Air pollution from oil and gas causes 90,000 premature US deaths each year, says new study The Guardian
US oil and gas air pollution is causing unequal health impacts: Study The Hill
Oil and gas air pollution linked to 91,000 early deaths in the US each year Phys.org
91,000 Premature Deaths Each Year Linked to US Air Pollution AOL.com
Microsoft is testing a new Windows 11 feature that will let you resume using your Android apps right on your PC. The capability is gradually rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels, and only supports the Spotify app for now.
If you’re in the test, you can try out the feature by linking your Android phone to your PC, and then opening up a song on Spotify’s mobile app. From there, Windows 11 will display a “Resume from your phone” notification alongside the Spotify icon and a prompt to “Continue on this PC.”
Once you select the notification, your PC will open Spotify’s desktop app — or prompt you to install it if you haven’t yet — and continue to play the same song from your computer. Microsoft first showcased this feature during a (now-deleted) Build 2025 demo. It sounds pretty similar to Handoff on macOS, which lets you resume your activity on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch on another device.
Microsoft doesn’t say how it plans to expand this Handoff-like feature in the future, but I could see it becoming helpful if you want to continue an activity that you started on your phone, like reading an article or writing an email, on your computer.
When, in 1998, Doris Lockhart Saatchi was asked to put together her own fantasy art collection as part of a fundraising drive, her choices raised eyebrows in the art world.
Lockhart Saatchi’s name, with that of her ex-husband, the advertising guru Charles Saatchi, had become synonymous with the Young British Artists (YBAs) – a term newly applied to a group that had first shown together a decade previously. Rather than selecting Damien Hirsts or Tracey Emins, though, Lockhart Saatchi, who has died aged 88, chose Simone Martini’s Uffizi Annunciation, from the 14th century, together with works by Francisco de Zurbarán and Nicolas Poussin. The only modern paintings on her list – commissioned by the National Art Collections Fund (NACF, now the Art Fund) for a lecture series – were Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis and a canvas by the American minimalist Brice Marden.
At the time, her unexpected choices seemed to be a shot across the bows of her ex-husband. When Lockhart had met Saatchi in London in 1967, both were advertising executives at the agency Benton & Bowles. Lockhart was six years older than Saatchi and married to the racing driver Hugh Dibley. By the end of the year, she had left Dibley for Saatchi, whom she would marry in 1973.
The couple went on to build a hugely influential art collection and transformed the London art market, before separating in 1987 and divorcing three years later.
Initially the pair had seemed ill matched. Where Saatchi had trained from the start as an ad man, Lockhart, an American, had studied art and art history at the Sorbonne in Paris before taking a degree in the subjects at Smith College in Massachusetts, one of the so-called Little Ivies.
Saatchi was famously hot-tempered, but Lockhart was the embodiment of Wasp sangfroid. She described herself as a Dom Pérignon Democrat; he would later run the ad campaign that helped get Margaret Thatcher elected. Her tastes ran to American minimalism, his, at the time, to Superman comics.
All this changed when the pair got together. In 1969, Saatchi bought his first piece of art, by the American minimalist Sol LeWitt. The following year he and his brother, Maurice, set up their own agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, the walls of which were soon hung with paintings by the likes of Robert Mangold, another US minimalist, with many of them labelled “Bought by Doris Saatchi”.
By the mid-80s, the collection, then mostly of American pop and minimalism, was large enough to merit its own space, and the Saatchi Gallery – opened in a disused paint factory in north-west London – became a destination on the art map.
When the couple split, Saatchi quickly sold most of these American works, replacing them with ones by the YBAs. Lockhart’s role in the discovery of the group was quietly sidelined.
In fact, her part in the YBA phenomenon had been crucial.
Two of their number, the collaborative duo Langlands & Bell, recall her as having been “well ahead of her erstwhile husband in recognising the talent of many of those who were soon to be known as the YBAs”.
And while it was Saatchi who bought Hirst’s celebrated 1991 work The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, it was Lockhart who had supported the artist in making it.
“On one of my visits to see Damien, he asked if I could lend him some money,” she recalled. “He said he wanted to get a shark sent from Australia. So I said, ‘Yeah, sure, how much do you need?’”
“It was so amusing,” she told the Independent in 1987. “Whenever I visited one of the new young galleries that were springing up in out-of-the-way places such as Peckham, I was told that Charles had either just left or had arrived just after I had. We were discovering the same art with the same excitement within days, or even hours, of one another.”
Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991, in the Saatchi Gallery at County Hall, London. Lockhart Saatchi lent Hirst money to have the shark transported from Australia. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Doris was the daughter of Nina (nee Tall) and Jack Lockhart, then a journalist and later a newspaper executive. The family moved to the smart New York area of Scarsdale, where Doris went to high school. She graduated from Smith in 1958 and worked for a period at the advertising firm J Walter Thompson in New York, before moving to the UK and marrying Dibley in 1965.
In the years after her divorce from Saatchi, the distinction between Lockhart the woman and Lockhart the collector seemed increasingly to blur. Her houses doubled as galleries for shows she curated, often highlighting the work of female artists such as Lisa Yuskavage whom she considered overlooked, or those, such as Louise Bourgeois, who made art out of personal pain. Her first house, in Mayfair, central London, was designed by the minimalist architect John Pawson. The second, in Battersea, was to a large extent her own work. Both were shared with a varying company of cats.
After 1992, Lockhart largely stopped collecting contemporary artworks, instead concentrating on architectural drawings and models. While continuing as a sometime presenter on the BBC TV series The Late Show and judge for art prizes, she took on the job of contributing editor on the architectural magazine Blueprint. From 1987, she served on the council of the Architectural Association; she was also art consultant for the Millennium Dome Mind Zone, designed by her friend the architect Zaha Hadid. “I do have a lot of money; I’ve been very lucky,” she said. “But I feel obliged to say that I have worked very, very hard.”
For her own part, Lockhart was careful to differentiate herself from the work she had once collected. A 1983 photograph of her by Robert Mapplethorpe, now in the National Portrait Gallery, had seemed to show her as made of glass. “Mapplethorpe totally objectified me, dehumanised me, almost,” she remarked to the Sunday Times in 2022. “When I look at his portrait, I don’t see myself. I see Robert Mapplethorpe’s wonderful photograph.” In truth, Lockhart was reticent rather than brittle, and perhaps a little shy.
Two of the paintings she chose for her 1998 NACF collection were portraits of women, one of them Isabella d’Este and the other of the Roman goddess Diana. Of the two, Lockhart identified herself, surprisingly, with the latter. “Isabella was a classic rich, powerful woman,” she said. “A matriarch, the head of a grand family. I don’t see myself like that at all. I’m more like Diana. As Artemis, she lived on the mountain tops. But she also lived alone. I guess that’s a description of me.”
Lockhart Saatchi is survived by her brothers, Richard and Jeffrey.
After propensity score matching, the association of oxaliplatin with OS in the fully adjusted model of patients 70 years and younger was significant, but in those older than 70 years, oxaliplatin was not associated with improved survival.
The addition of oxaliplatin to fluoropyrimidine-based adjuvant chemotherapy in select older patients with stage III colorectal cancer (CRC) exhibited improved survival outcomes vs chemotherapy alone, according to findings from a population-based retrospective cohort study published in JAMA Open Network.1
Specifically, patients 70 years and younger with stage III disease saw an adjusted HR (AHR) for oxaliplatin use with overall survival (OS) of 0.79 (95% CI, 0.63-0.99; P = .04). By contrast, patients 70 years and older and those with stage II disease ages 60 to 80 years old (AHR, range, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.34-1.50] to 1.09 [95% CI, 0.73-1.64]) were not associated with improved survival vs without oxaliplatin.
Furthermore, in a fully age-adjusted model of patients 70 years or younger with stage II disease, the AHR for the association of oxaliplatin use with OS was 0.59 (95% CI, 0.46-0.77; P < .001). For patients older than 70 years, oxaliplatin was not associated with improved OS in any model (AHR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.67-1.07; P = .18). Additionally, after propensity score matching (PSM), the association of oxaliplatin with OS in the fully adjusted model of patients 70 years and younger was 0.60 (95% CI, 0.41-0.89; P = .01). Further, in those older than 70 years, oxaliplatin was not associated with improved survival in any model.
In the stage III disease, 70 years and younger group before PSM, the 5-year OS in the oxaliplatin and non-oxaliplatin arms was 84.8% vs 78.1% (P = .003). Furthermore, after PSM in the respective treatment populations, the 5-year OS was 85.0% vs 78.9% (P = .01). Additionally, for the older than 70 group, the respective 5-year rates were 68.3% vs 70.6% (P = .36) before PSM and 68.0% vs 71.0% (P = .29) after PSM.
“In this cohort study, oxaliplatin was associated with improved OS among patients with stage III colorectal cancer aged 70 years or younger but not among patients older than 70 years or patients with stage II disease,” Jun Woo Bong, MD, PhD, of the Department of Surgery, Korea University Guro Hospital in Seoul, Republic of Korea, wrote in the publication with study coinvestigators. “In patients with stage II disease, the lack of association between oxaliplatin and improved survival highlights the need for refined risk stratification to guide adjuvant therapy decisions. Future research should continue to explore innovative approaches to optimize the treatment of older patients with colorectal cancer to ensure a balance between efficacy and safety.”
Using data from the Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service National Quality Assessment (HIRA-NQA) program, the population-based, retrospective cohort study included patients who underwent curative radical resection for stage II or III CRC and received adjuvant chemotherapy between January 2014 and December 2016. In total, 2913 patients with stage II disease and 5648 patients with stage III disease were included.
The study specifically examined outcomes associated with adjuvant non-oxaliplatin regimens, comprised of fluorouracil plus leucovorin (folinic acid) or capecitabine, vs adjuvant oxaliplatin regimens, which included capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPOX), fluorouracil/leucovorin plus oxaliplatin (FOLFOX), and modified FOLFOX.
Across the combined analysis cohort, the mean age was 63.2 years (SD, 11.2), 59.4% were male, and greater proportions of female patients, those who were obese, those who used oxaliplatin-based regimens, and patients who discontinued chemotherapy were higher in the stage II disease group. Oral capecitabine use was more frequent in the stage III disease vs stage II disease groups (23.6% vs 21.6%; P = .04). Furthermore, 8.9% of those 70 years and younger received non-oxaliplatin treatment compared with 38.6% of patients older than 70 years.
The rate of chemotherapy discontinuation among patients older than 70 years with stage III disease was 37.4% vs 23.9% among patients 70 years or younger (P < .001). Furthermore, the rate of chemotherapy discontinuation among patients older than 70 years was 39.9% in the oxaliplatin group vs 33.4% in the non-oxaliplatin group, achieving statistical significance (P = .008). A nonsignificant difference with observed in the 70 and younger group, at 24.2% vs 20.7%, respectively (P = .17).
Reference
Bong JW, Lee H, Jeong S, Kang S. Older age threshold for oxaliplatin benefit in stage II to III colorectal cancer. JAMA Open Netw. 2025;8(8):e2525660. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.25660
Royal Mail missed its targets by delivering nearly a quarter of first class mail late in the first update since its parent company was bought by a Czech billionaire, figures show.
The company said on Friday it had delivered 75.9% of first class mail within one working day of collection in the three months to 29 June, up from 74.2% the previous quarter but well behind the 93% target set by the regulator, Ofcom.
Its performance on second class was “broadly stable”, with 89.3% of mail delivered within three working days, lagging Ofcom’s target of 98.5%.
EP, the group controlled by Daniel Křetínský, completed a drawn-out £3.6bn takeover of International Distribution Services (IDS) in April after a UK government review under national security laws. Křetínský, known as the Czech Sphinx, owns a collection of businesses including energy assets, and stakes in Sainsbury’s and West Ham United.
In its quarterly update, Royal Mail also said it had managed to deliver 97% of first class mail within three days.
The company has long struggled to deliver mail on time. It has been fined more than £16m over the past two years for failing to meet targets, and Ofcom began an investigation this year after it missed annual targets.
Daniel Křetínský also has stakes in Sainsbury’s and West Ham United. Photograph: David W Černý/Reuters
Jamie Stephenson, interim chief operating officer at Royal Mail, said: “Timely letter deliveries really matter to our customers, and they matter to us too.
“We are taking targeted steps to improve reliability, and we remain focused on delivering a better service for all our customers, every day.”
Last month, Royal Mail was given the green light by Ofcom to drop Saturday deliveries of second-class letters, and to provide services on alternate weekdays from Monday to Friday rather than every day as it attempts to cut costs and make the service more reliable.
Ofcom also lowered targets for first class post to be delivered the next day from 93% to 90%, and for second class within three days from 98.5% to 95%. The changes take effect from next April.
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Tom MacInnes, director of policy at Citizens Advice, said: “It’s no surprise that paying consumers are still being let down by our country’s postal service. For more than half a decade, late deliveries have disrupted lives – causing people to miss medical appointments and benefit decisions – while stamp prices soared.
“Yet, Ofcom has responded by lowering Royal Mail’s delivery targets and slashing its second class delivery requirements in half. These changes don’t guarantee a more reliable or affordable service, but risk making things worse for consumers.”
He added: “Ofcom must ensure reduced deliveries are balanced with targets Royal Mail genuinely has to hit so people finally get the service they deserve.”
Emma Gilthorpe suddenly left after just over a year as Royal Mail’s chief executive in June, weeks after EP completed its IDS takeover.
The baseline characteristics of the participants in the study are shown in Table 1. In total, 3,778 people were included and arthritis was present in 36.3% of this population. In addition to the levels of sodium, and HDL, and ALB, there were significant differences in baseline parameters between the arthritis and non-arthritis groups. Participants in the arthritis group were older and had higher level of BMI, waist circumference, Hb, FBG, Alk, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, TC, TG, BUN, Scr, and UA than those in the non-arthritis group.
Association of female reproductive factor with arthritis
The RCS showed that U-shaped were found between AFB, and number of pregnancies with arthritis (P for nonlinear < 0.05; Fig. 2A, and C). However, non-linear association was not detected in this association (P for nonlinear > 0.05), which demonstrated that ALB, and number of live births is negatively correlated with the prevalence of arthritis (Fig. 2B, and D). Tables 2 and 3 also shown the results of multivariate logistic regression analyses for the association of AFB, ALB, and number of pregnancies, and live births with risk of arthritis. Compared to female individuals with AFB of ≤ 23 years old (reference group), the fully adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in women with arthritis in 24–26, 27–29, 30–32, 33–35, ≥ 36 years were 0.88 (0.79, 0.99), 0.99 (0.86, 1.14), 0.95 (0.78, 1.16), 0.81 (0.62, 1.08), and 1.02 (0.71, 1.46), respectively. In addition, after controlling for underlying cofounders, compared to female individuals with ALB of ≤ 23 years old (reference group), the fully adjusted the ORs with 95% CIs for arthritis were 0.94 (0.84, 1.05), 0.84 (0.75, 0.94), 0.81 (0.72, 0.93), and 0.65 (0.53, 0.78) for 25–29, 0–34, 35–39, and ≥ 40 years (Table 2). Finally, after adjusting for interfering factors, in the fully adjusted model, the ORs with 95% CIs for association of number of pregnancies, and live births with arthritis across 3, 4 and ≥ 5 times were (0.91 (0.82, 1.02), 0.98 (0.88, 1.09), 1.03 (0.93, 1.14)) and (0.99 (0.90, 1.09), 0.96 (0.86, 1.08), and 0.96 (0.85, 1.08)), respectively, compared with ≤ 2 times (Table 3).
Fig. 2
Restricted cubic spline curve for the association of female reproductive factor with the prevalence of arthritis. A Age at first birth and arthritis; (B) Age at last birth and arthritis; (C) number of pregnancies; (D) number of live births and arthritis. Abbreviations: OR, odd ratio; CI, confidence interval
Table 2 Associations of AFB, and ALB with the risk of arthritis
Table 3 Associations of number of pregnancies, and live births with the risk of arthritis
Association of female reproductive factor with OA, RA, and other arthritis
The RCS model showed a nonlinear U-shaped association of AFB with OA, RA, and other arthritis (P for non-linearity < 0.05, Fig. 3A, B, and C). ALB was found to be U-shaped in relation to the prevalence of OA (P for non-linearity < 0.05), but linearly negative in relation to RA, and other arthritis (P for non-linearity > 0.05; Fig. 4A, B, and C). There was a negative linear correlation between number of pregnancies and other arthritis (P for non-linearity < 0.05; Fig. 5C), but a J-shaped correlation with OA, and RA (P for non-linearity < 0.05; Fig. 5A, and B). A negative linear correlation existed between number of live births and OA, and other arthritis (Fig. 6A, and C), but it was positively related to RA (Fig. 6B). Separate multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association of female reproductive factor with OA, RA, and other arthritis (Tables 4, 5, and 6).
Fig. 3
Restricted cubic spline curve for the association of age at first birth with the prevalence of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other arthritis. Abbreviations: OR, odd ratio; CI, confidence interval
Fig. 4
Restricted cubic spline curve for the association of age at last birth with the prevalence of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other arthritis. Abbreviations: OR, odd ratio; CI, confidence interval
Fig. 5
Restricted cubic spline curve for the association of number of pregnancies with the prevalence of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other arthritis. Abbreviations: OR, odd ratio; CI, confidence interval
Fig. 6
Restricted cubic spline curve for the association of number of live births with the prevalence of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other arthritis. Abbreviations: OR, odd ratio; CI, confidence interval
Table 4 Associations of AFB, ALB, numbers of pregnancies, and number of live births with the risk of osteoarthritis
Table 5 Associations of AFB, ALB, number of pregnancies, and number of live birth with the risk of rheumatoid arthritis
Table 6 Associations of AFB, ALB, number of pregnancies, and number of live births with the risk of other arthritis
Subgroup analyses
Subgroup analyses were carried out based on age (< 45 or ≥ 45 years), menopause status (no or yes), race/ethnicity (Non-Hispanic Black, Other Hispanic, Mexican American, Other Race, and Non-Hispanic White), age at menarche (< 12, 12–13, and > 13 years), ever used female hormone therapy (no or yes), and fertile lifespan (< 28, 28–35, and > 35 years) to find the association of AFB, ALB, number of live births, and pregnancies with prevalence of arthritis (Supplementary Table 1, 2, 3, and 4; Supplementary Fig. 1, 2, 3, and 4).
Methane — a potent greenhouse gas — constantly seeps from the ocean floor and can rise into the atmosphere. Now, an international team led by scientists with the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences has uncovered how tiny microorganisms work together as a living electrical network to consume some of this gas before it escapes, acting as a powerful living filter.
By revealing how these microbes naturally reduce methane emissions, the findings could lead to innovative strategies to better control methane release in both natural and engineered environments.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, sheds light on a unique partnership between two very different microbes: anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB).
Alone, neither microbe can consume methane. When ANME break down methane, the process releases electrons that must be offloaded — a process known as a redox reaction, in which electrons move from one molecule to another — much like how humans rely on oxygen to accept electrons. Without an electron acceptor, methane consumption stalls.
This is where their bacterial partners step in.
While unable to consume methane themselves, the SRB help by accepting the electrons released during the process and transferring them to SRB’s electron acceptor, sulfate, which powers their own metabolism.
“These two very different microbes come together into physically interconnected bundles,” said Moh El-Naggar, Dean’s Professor of Physics and Astronomy and professor of chemistry and biological sciences at USC Dornsife and one of the study’s lead researchers. “And the whole process works because conductive redox proteins link them up into functioning electrical circuits.”
Using specialized electrochemical methods, the international research team — including scientists from Caltech, Peking University and the Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology — measured this electron exchange in the lab for the first time, using samples collected from different marine methane seeps, including the Mediterranean Sea, Guaymas Basin and the California coast.
“These microbial partnerships act as natural sentries, playing a crucial role in limiting the release of methane into the ocean and atmosphere,” said Hang Yu, the study’s lead author, who began this research nine years ago during his PhD at Caltech and focused on it as a postdoctoral fellow at USC Dornsife. Now an assistant professor at Peking University, Yu added, “By uncovering how these partnerships function, we gain insight into how life has evolved over billions of years, even in extreme environments, to consume potent greenhouse gases.”
The researchers say the discovery offers new insight into how unseen microbial activity may influence Earth’s systems in ways we’re only beginning to understand.
“It may surprise people to know that microbes, even in the remotest of places, work together in sophisticated ways that influence processes on a planetary scale,” said Victoria Orphan, James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science and Geobiology at Caltech and co-author of the study. “This discovery, the result of nearly a decade of multidisciplinary research, is a testament to persistence and collaboration in science. It underscores how much we still have to learn about the microbial ecosystems we depend on.”
About the study: The research was conducted by an international team that also included Shuai Xu and Yamini Jangir, former USC and Caltech postdoctoral scholars, and Gunter Wegener, a senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology. The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Germany’s Excellence Initiative.
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Redox conduction facilitates direct interspecies electron transport in anaerobic methanotrophic consortia
Article Publication Date
22-Aug-2025
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s) appear to reduce the risk of several cancers among adults with obesity, according to findings from a large retrospective cohort study published in JAMA Oncology. Investigators reported that GLP-1 use was associated with lower overall cancer risk, with the strongest associations observed for endometrial and ovarian cancers and meningioma.1
Jian Bian, PhD, MS
Courtesy of the Regenstrief Institute
Accruing evidence suggests obesity is associated with at least 13 types of cancer, which account for approximately 40% of all cancer diagnoses each year in the US, according to the CDC.2 As obesity rates continue to rise, identifying effective interventions to mitigate cancer risk among individuals with obesity is a critical public health priority.3
Obesity without Diabetes
Existing studies “have focused on comparisons among glucose-lowering drugs in patients with T2D, leaving uncertainty regarding their potential role in cancer prevention in individuals with obesity regardless of diabetes status,” authors wrote. “Additionally, previous studies often did not address variation in treatment effects across different patient groups, known as heterogeneity of treatment effects.”
For their analysis, lead author Jiang Bian, PhD, MS, associate dean for data science at Indiana University School of Medicine and chief data scientist for IU Health and the Regenstrief Institute, and colleagues used electronic health record data from the OneFlorida+ health research network, which covers about 10 million individuals in Florida and neighboring southern states. The final cohort, identified between January 1 and 31, 2024, included 86,632 adults meeting eligibility criteria of either obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30 kg/m2 or greater) or overweight (BMI 27–29.9 with at least one weight-related comorbidity).
Bian et al matched 43,317 GLP-1 users to 43,315 nonusers Among all participants the mean age was 52.4 years, 68.2% were women, 44.2% were non-Hispanic White. Approximately half (48.3%) were categorized as having obesity and roughly the same proportion (50.7%) had type 2 diabetes.
Findings
Researchers compared the incidence of 14 cancer types between GLP-1 users and nonusers. They reported an incidence rate for all 14 of 13.6 per 1,000 persons for GLP-1 users compared with 16.2 per 1,000 persons for nonusers. The overall hazard ratio (HR) for cancer among the former vs the latter group was 0.83 (95% CI, 0.76–0.91; P = .002). Bian and colleagues found statistically significant reductions for 3 types of cancer:
Endometrial cancer (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.57–0.99)
Ovarian cancer (HR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.29–0.96)
Meningioma (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.48–0.97).
When endometrial and ovarian cancers were analyzed together, the combined hazard ratio was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.52–0.87).
Conversely, they observed a higher incidence of kidney cancer among GLP-1 users compared with nonusers, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (HR, 1.38; 95% CI, 0.99–1.93). Other documented reductions in risk, including for upper gastrointestinal, lung, and thyroid cancers, also did not achieve significance.
Effective Interventions are Needed
Bian et al noted that their study is “one of the first to assess the association between GLP-1RA use and cancer risk in the broad, real-world population with obesity or overweight who are eligible for AOM.”
“As obesity rates continue to rise, identifying effective interventions to mitigate cancer risk among individuals with obesity is a critical public health priority,” the study authors wrote. They added, “Given that more than 137 million individuals in the US are currently eligible for GLP-1RA therapies, even modest changes in cancer risk could have substantial public health implications.”
Among the study’s limitations the authors acknowledged the observational design, potential confounding factors, limited data on lifestyle variables, and relatively short follow-up for cancer outcomes.
The researchers plan to extend their analyses using statewide electronic health records to assess long-term associations and explore effects of individual GLP-1 agents rather than the class as a whole.
References
Dai H, Li Y, Lee YA, et al. GLP-1 receptor agonists and cancer risk in adults with obesity. JAMA Oncol. Published online August 21, 2025. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2025.2681
Obesity and cancer. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. June 11, 2025.Accessed August 22, 2025, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/risk-factors/obesity.html
Peralta M, Ramos M, Lipert A, Martins J, Marques A. Prevalence and trends of overweight and obesity in older adults from 10 European countries from 2005 to 2013. Scand J Public Health. 2018;46(5):522-529. doi:10.1177/1403494818764810
NIA’s grant is aimed to accelerate LHP588 for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and Porphyromonas Gingivitis infections. Stock.adobe.com
Lighthouse Pharmaceuticals announced it received a $49.2 million grant from the National Institute of Aging (NIA), a section of the National Institutes of health (NIH). The grant was awarded to Lighthouse to support the advancement of the Phase 2 clinical trial of LHP588 for patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and Porphyromonas Gingivitis infections.
“We are honored to receive this support from the NIA. It is powerful validation of the growing body of evidence connecting P. gingivalis to Alzheimer’s disease and the potential of gingipain inhibition as a therapeutic strategy,” said Casey Lynch, chief executive officer of Lighthouse Pharma. “We are proud to lead this pioneering trial aimed at modifying the disease process by targeting a known microbial driver of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration.”1
LHP588, an orally administered, brain-penetrant lysine-gingipain (Kgp) inhibitor designed to selectively block the activity of this key virulence factor of P. gingivalis, assists in reducing the bacteria’s toxicity and viability.1 Previous clinical studies of Kgp inhibitors in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease patients, yielded significant reduced cognitive decline in designated Porphyromonas Gingivitis subgroups, along with reducing Porphyromonas Gingivitis presence in saliva. These results correlated with improved clinical outcomes.
LHP588 will undergo the Phase 2 Spring trial, evaluating its safety, efficacy, and tolerability of high and low dosage amounts of LHP588, compared to a placebo administered to 300 patients diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease and have tested positive for Porphyromonas Gingivitis in saliva samples. The Phase 2 trial will be a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The Phase 2 Spring clinical trial will be supported by NIA under award number R01AG088524.
“This grant enables a rigorous clinical test of a truly novel mechanism of action in Alzheimer’s disease,” said Marwan Sabbagh MD, chair of Lighthouse Pharma’s clinical advisory board. “By directly inhibiting lysine-gingipain, LHP588 offers a targeted approach to intervening in the infectious and inflammatory cascade that may underlie the disease in P. gingivalis-positive AD patients.”1
An estimated six million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, which currently has no cure. Now, emerging evidence showing Porphyromonas Gingivitis infections contribute to the progression of Alzheimer’s through the production of gingipains (neurotoxic proteases that promote inflammation, neuronal damage, amyloid-beta accumulation, and tau pathology).
This positions LHP588 to provide patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and Porphyromonas Gingivitis infections a treatment solution.
Lighthouse Pharmaceuticals Receives $49.2 Million Grant from NIA to Advance Phase 2 Study of LHP588 for P. gingivalis-positive Alzheimer’s Disease Lighthouse Pharmaceuticals August 22, 2025 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lighthouse-pharmaceuticals-receives-49-2-million-grant-from-nia-to-advance-phase-2-study-of-lhp588-for-p-gingivalis-positive-alzheimers-disease-302536299.html
