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  • Better education and income reduce anxiety about growing old

    Better education and income reduce anxiety about growing old

    New research explains why some people worry less about growing old, showing that education, income, and fairer social policies could ease China’s fears of aging.

    Study: Why does aging anxiety emerge? A study on the influence of socioeconomic status. Image credit: Toa55/Shutterstock.com

    A recent study in Frontiers in Psychology investigates the mechanisms through which socioeconomic status (SES) affects aging anxiety, utilizing data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS).

    How has the transformation in the economy and society impacted aging-related anxiety?

    The challenge associated with population aging is becoming increasingly severe in China, with 15.4% of the total population above 65 years of age at the end of 2023. Rising life expectancy has also contributed to the challenges associated with aging. At the societal level, the progress toward healthy aging is hampered by stereotypes and persistent age discrimination against older adults.

    Existing research has shown the adverse mental health and well-being effects associated with negative views or beliefs about aging. Fear of elderly loneliness and aging-related diseases can contribute to death anxiety and depression. The anxiety may spread and transform into a pervasive societal mood if left untreated. This, in turn, could adversely affect socioeconomic development and healthy aging.

    Aging anxiety merits exploration of influencing factors at a broader social structural level. Such explorations are lacking in existing research, which requires further examination of the causal mechanisms between aging anxiety and influencing factors, such as SES.

    About the study

    This study uses data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) 2021 to analyze the mechanisms through which socioeconomic status affects aging anxiety. It also sheds light on the impact of structural social factors such as marketization levels and urban–rural disparities on aging anxiety. The socioeconomic factors include personal income, subjective expectations of rising socioeconomic status, and education levels. In addition, factors such as political affiliation, social trust, and social support were examined as controls. Perceptions of aging and stressors were used as mediating variables.

    Given that other factors may influence the impact of socioeconomic status on aging anxiety, this analysis used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM).

    Province-level variables were modeled to assess the moderating role of marketization and the direct effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on aging anxiety.

    Due to the complex relationship between aging anxiety and objective/subjective SES, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the mediating mechanisms. For heterogeneity analysis, hierarchical ordered probit (Oprobit) assessed SES effects on each specific anxiety dimension.

    Study findings

    The overall mean aging anxiety score decreased marginally between 2010 and 2021. Concerning individual anxiety dimensions, average anxiety about self-care (physical mobility) declined marginally, anxiety about autonomy (decision-making) rose slightly, and anxiety about self-sufficiency (financial independence) reduced most substantially. This highlights the anxiety-mitigating effect of improved income levels and socioeconomic development.

    Several regression models were estimated to evaluate the impact of SES on aging anxiety. The fully saturated model showed that socioeconomic status, stressors, and aging perceptions exert significant effects on aging anxiety. Specifically, improvements in education and income and favourable expectations about socioeconomic status significantly alleviated aging anxiety.

    The effects of ethnicity, marital status, and political affiliation were only significant in simpler models but lost significance once all variables were included. Social trust and participation in social insurance were also protective, while the effects of social support were more complex. They were sometimes linked to higher anxiety when family caregiving burdens meant that “listening” support from relatives added stress rather than easing it. Age showed a U-shaped association with the inflection point at approximately 42 years.

    SEM mediation analysis showed that education partially influences aging anxiety through personal stressors, healthcare access barriers, family stressors, and aging perceptions. Personal income showed an insignificant effect on family stressors, while maintaining a significant negative effect on personal stressors. It also showed significant positive impacts on perceptions of aging.

    Overall, income influences aging anxiety indirectly through aging perceptions and personal stressors. Additionally, subjective mobility expectations affect aging anxiety through both personal and anticipated stressor channels. The authors also noted that part of the impact of education (~13%) and income (~7%) on aging anxiety operates indirectly through expectations of social mobility.

    An insignificant association was noted by examining whether provincial marketization levels moderate the relationship between personal income, subjective SES, and aging anxiety. However, a significant positive moderation by regional marketization was noted concerning the educational attainment’s mitigating effect on aging anxiety. This means that education reduced aging anxiety more strongly in provinces with higher levels of marketization, while income and subjective SES expectations did not show significant moderation.

    Concerning heterogeneity analysis, regional urbanization levels and urban–rural structures moderated the effects of SES on aging anxiety. In more urban regions, the anxiety-reducing effect of educational attainment is stronger. Among rural residents, increased participation in social insurance can alleviate anxiety.

    Conclusions

    The first concern is prioritizing an equitable distribution of developmental benefits across residents in rural and urban regions. Secondly, online and offline platforms must be leveraged to build a society that values its elderly population. Extensive public awareness campaigns could help combat age-based discrimination and negative stereotypes.

    Institutional arrangements for social security systems should be enhanced, particularly those related to long-term care. Prioritizing low-income vulnerable groups and rural residents could mitigate aging-related concerns.

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  • iPipeline Launches Advanced Underwriting to Whole of Market

    iPipeline Launches Advanced Underwriting to Whole of Market

    iPipeline has rolled out its new Advanced Underwriting feature to all advisers via its SolutionBuilder® platform. This powerful upgrade means faster, sharper protection quotes and smarter underwriting decisions – helping advisers work more efficiently and deliver even better results.

    Following a successful launch with The Openwork Partnership, the service is now available across the entire market. It leverages data from the 20 most common medical disclosures – covering 80% of typical changes to terms – giving advisers and clients a clearer view of coverage and cost upfront. The result is fewer delays, fewer dropped applications, and more transparency.

    Leading insurers – including The Exeter, Vitality, and Zurich – are already live, with three more set to join soon. The tool was developed with input from top advisers and tackles one of the biggest challenges in protection sales: uncertainty at the start.

    Advisers are already experiencing the impact. Scott Taylor-Barr from Barnsdale Financial Management says it helps him provide clients realistic quotes from the start, even for complex cases.

    Taylor-Barr said “I have found Advanced Underwriting incredibly useful, allowing me to see ex-smoker premiums for clients and getting BMI priced in from the beginning of the client journey, whilst being able to see which insurers are more likely to offer favourable term for more complex lives. 

    I’ve now had cases where we’ve been able to see refer results from some insurers, alongside ratings and standard terms from others, enabling us to recommend those showing standard term to clients much earlier than the traditional process of completing a pre-app with all insurers”

    iPipeline expects Advanced Underwriting to significantly impact the protection market, improving conversion rates, setting clearer client expectations, and ultimately helping more people get covered, faster.

    Rachel Edwards, SVP & UK Managing Director, said: “After years of collaboration, we’re proud to launch Advanced Underwriting to the whole protection market. It’s a real step-change, giving advisers and customers a faster, smoother, and more transparent experience.

    Early results are outstanding: with adoption racing towards 50% in just two months. In a market where the quote-and-apply journey has remained largely unchanged for 20 years, this represents a major transformation.

    We’ll continue working with advisers and providers to ensure the whole sector benefits from this game-changing functionality.”

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  • Wondering where life began? Scientists reveal surprising ‘spark’ that may have kickstarted Earth’s first organisms

    Wondering where life began? Scientists reveal surprising ‘spark’ that may have kickstarted Earth’s first organisms

    How did lifeless chemistry on early Earth transform into biology? For decades, scientists have wrestled with this chicken-or-egg riddle: proteins are essential to cells, but they can only be made inside cells with the help of other proteins. Now, a new study in Nature suggests that this paradox may not be as impossible as once thought.

    A team of researchers from University College London has shown that RNA molecules and amino acids can spontaneously join forces in water under neutral conditions, without the need for complex enzymes. They demonstrated that aminoacyl-thiols—a class of sulfur-based compounds—can selectively attach amino acids to RNA, effectively mimicking the first stage of modern protein production inside ribosomes.

    “We have achieved the first part of that complex process, using very simple chemistry in water at neutral pH,” said Matthew Powner, one of the study’s authors, in a statement quoted by Futurism. “The chemistry is spontaneous, selective, and could have occurred on early Earth.”

    Life’s molecular matchmaking

    The research team explained that thioesters, molecules central to metabolism even today, might have been the original matchmakers of life. Instead of leading to uncontrolled chaos, these sulfur-linked compounds nudged amino acids to pair with RNA strands in a tidy, selective way. This step is critical, because life depends on order—random peptides would never sustain the genetic coding system required for evolution.

    Interestingly, the experiments revealed that RNA duplexes (double-stranded forms) played a special role in directing amino acids to attach at precise spots, setting the stage for what could later evolve into coding and protein synthesis.

    Clues hidden in ice and freshwater pools

    Another quirky finding: freezing conditions amplified these reactions, even at very low concentrations of molecules. This means icy lakes and ponds on early Earth might have been quiet cradles of life, where primitive chemistry ticked along for millennia. Nick Lane, a UCL chemist not involved in the research, told Science that while the study is a breakthrough, it doesn’t yet fully explain how life’s tidy protein sequences emerged from random chemistry. Still, he noted that these insights bring us closer to understanding how amino acids could have first been organized.

    From space rocks to living cells

    Adding to the cosmic curiosity, scientists have also discovered amino acids and nucleotides—the raw ingredients of life—on meteorites and asteroid samples. This makes the scenario even more plausible: early Earth may have received an extraterrestrial delivery, with thioesters and RNA molecules teaming up to spark the first whispers of biology.

    The study, “Thioester-mediated RNA aminoacylation and peptidyl-RNA synthesis in water” published in Nature, doesn’t just address a long-standing scientific puzzle. It adds weight to the idea of a “thioester world,” where sulfur chemistry provided the spark for life long before enzymes existed.

    Billions of years later, the fact that our own cells still rely on thioesters to fuel essential reactions may be nature’s way of reminding us where it all began.

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  • Hideo Kojima plays “maybe one game” a year

    Hideo Kojima plays “maybe one game” a year

    Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima has revealed he plays “maybe one game” a year.

    Speaking during a convention in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last week, Kojima admitted that he doesn’t play many video games despite creating hugely popular franchises Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid.

    “I don’t play games so much. I watch movies, read books, meet people and go to museums, and I’m not copying anything from a game. And there are a lot of game creators just watching other games,” he said (via Rolling Stone). “We should think outside the box and be stimulated by things all around us, and that’s what creators are.”

    “Games take a lot of time, and I probably just play maybe one game a year,” he continued. “I play my games by checking, but I have to think outside the box, and what’s happening outside the game world is more important to me to incorporate into my game.”

    “Directors like Mamoru Oshii (Ghost In The Shell) or Katsushiro Otomo (Akira), the reason why they create their masterpieces is because they haven’t just watched anime,” he added. “They have seen European films and wanted to put that in anime. I think the young people are playing games a lot, and that’s good. But on top of that, I want people to feel art or see art and then digest it themselves and create new games.”

    Earlier this year, Kojima hit out at samey blockbuster titles and the “sad” state of the AAA games industry.  “Even the visuals and the systems are pretty much the same. A lot of people enjoy this, I understand, but it is important to put something really new in there for the industry,” he explained. “If there is no risk, there won’t be any good things that would be born.”

    Despite having a concept for a third Death Stranding game, Kojima has said he wants someone else to create it. He’s currently working on a big screen adaptation of Death Stranding (though won’t be directing that either) and an anime version of Death Stranding is also in development.

    Kojima isn’t done with video games though. He’s working a game with celebrated horror director Jordan Peele and has plans for a new stealth game, codename Physint, though that probably won’t be released until 2023.

    In other news, Elden Ring: Nightreign has confirmed a new ultra-difficult mode will launch later this month after being leaked earlier this year.


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  • PDMA Punjab issues alert regarding high-level flood in Sutlej river – RADIO PAKISTAN

    1. PDMA Punjab issues alert regarding high-level flood in Sutlej river  RADIO PAKISTAN
    2. Balloki on Ravi, Ganda Singh Wala on Sutlej continue to face ‘exceptionally high’ floods  Dawn
    3. Victims slam ‘showpiece’ camps  The Express Tribune
    4. Death toll rises to 41 as Punjab braces for fresh wave of floods  Dunya News
    5. Flood alert: Next three to four days critical for Bahawalpur  The Nation (Pakistan )

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  • Shubhanshu Shukla Posts Dizzying Video From His Training Days At NASA

    Shubhanshu Shukla Posts Dizzying Video From His Training Days At NASA

    Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has shared a fascinating video of his training inside the Multi Axis Trainer (MAT) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for the Ax-4 mission. The video offers a rare peek into the intense preparation astronauts undergo to handle the challenges of spaceflight, showcasing Shukla strapped into a device that spins wildly to simulate the disorienting motions of a spacecraft.

    The Multi Axis Trainer, also called the Mercury Astronaut Trainer, was originally designed to prepare America’s early astronauts for the possibility of their capsule spinning out of control in orbit.

    “This trainer was used to expose the Mercury astronauts to excessive rates in roll, pitch, and yaw should the capsule experience the same in orbit,” Shukla explained. “The aim was to expose the astronauts to such rates so that they can control the space capsule in spite of being under such extreme rates,” he added. The device mimics the chaotic tumbling an astronaut might face, helping them learn to stay focused and in control under extreme conditions.

    ALSO SEE: Shubhanshu Shukla Reunites With His Family After Ax-4 Mission; Shares Pics

    Although the Mercury astronauts never faced such extreme spins during their missions, the training proved its worth later. Shukla shared a gripping story about legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong during the Gemini 8 mission in 1966. When a faulty thruster caused Armstrong’s spacecraft to spin dangerously while attempting to dock with the Agena target vehicle, he relied on his training to take manual control and stabilize the craft. This quick thinking saved the mission and remains a celebrated moment in space history.

    Shukla’s video also gave a glimpse into what it feels like to train in the MAT. Despite its dizzying appearance, the trainer is designed to keep trainees’ stomachs at the center of the motion, which helps prevent motion sickness. “Incidentally, you don’t feel sick in this trainer as your stomach is at the center always,” Shukla noted. However, he warned that closing one’s eyes during the training could cause nausea due to sensory confusion, adding, “not ready to try” that himself.

    ALSO SEE: Welcome Home Shubhanshu Shukla! SpaceX Dragon Splashes Down With Ax-4 Mission Crew


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  • ‘Serious danger’ if Trump interferes in Fed, says ECB chief – DW – 09/01/2025

    ‘Serious danger’ if Trump interferes in Fed, says ECB chief – DW – 09/01/2025

    US President Donald Trump’s attempts to put pressure on the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, pose a “very serious danger for the US economy and the world economy,” the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, said on Monday.

    President Trump has threatened to dismiss Fed Chairman Jerome Powell after repeatedly attacking him for not cutting short-term interest rates, and is also attempting to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

    What else did Lagarde say about Trump and the Fed?

    The ECB chief stressed the importance of independence in US monetary policy.

    “If US monetary policy were no longer independent and instead dependent on the dictates of this or that person, then I believe that the effect on the balance of the American economy could, given the effects this would have around the world, be very worrying, because it is the largest economy in the world,” Lagarde told French radio station Radio Classique.

    Nevertheless, she also assessed that it would ultimately be “very difficult” for Trump to take full control of Fed policy.

    “The US Supreme Court, which is largely respected in the country and therefore I hope will be respected by [Trump] as well, has clearly indicated that a Fed governor can only be dismissed in the case of gross misconduct,” Lagarde explained.

    “And you’d have go quite far to be fired for gross misconduct,” she added.

    Lagarde also told said that a ruling on Friday by a US appeals court that most of Trump’s tariffs were illegal had added a “further layer of uncertainty” to the global economic outlook.

    Trump’s move to fire US Fed Governor raises concerns

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    Potential collapse of French government ‘concerning’

    Meanwhile in Europe, economists’ eyes will be on France in the coming weeks where the government of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou is facing a likely defeat in a confidence vote tabled for next Monday in the National Assembly.

    “What I’ve observed in the last six years [as ECB President] is that political developments and moments of political risk have an obvious impact on the economy,” said Lagarde.

    “Any risk of a collapse of government in any country in the Eurozone is concerning,” she warned.

    On the other hand, Lagarde said she was much less worried about the prospect of France having to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for economic assistance.

    “Countries request IMF intervention in circumstances of serious budgetary deficit or when a country cannot meet its financial obligations,” she explained, but said the French banking system was better placed compared to the 2008 financial crisis.

    “I believe that the French banking system is well capitalized, that it is in better shape than it was during the last major financial crisis, that it is well structured, well supervised, and has responsible players,” she said.

    “I do not believe that the banking system itself is in any way the source of the current risk, but markets, in all circumstances of this nature, assess the risk,” she added.

    Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah

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  • Israel sends tanks deeper in Gaza City, more families flee

    Israel sends tanks deeper in Gaza City, more families flee

    Thousands of mourners attended a funeral at the largest mosque in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Monday for 12 senior Houthi figures, including their prime minister, who were killed by an Israeli strike. Last Thursday’s attack, the first to kill top officials, struck a large number of people who had gathered to watch a televised speech recorded by top Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, and it left most members of the group’s cabinet dead.
    Mourners chanted the Houthi slogan “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam,” as Mohammed Miftah, now de facto head of the Iran-aligned government in Sanaa, vowed revenge as well as an internal security crackdown against spies.
    “We are facing the strongest intelligence empire in the world, the one that targeted the government — the whole Zionist entity (comprising) the US administration, the Zionist entity, the Zionist Arabs and the spies inside Yemen,” Miftah told the crowd of mourners at the Al Saleh mosque.
    Miftah became the acting head of the Houthis’ government on Saturday following the death in the Israeli strike of Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb Al-Rahwi. Al-Rahwi was largely a figurehead and not part of the inner circle of power.
    Miftah had previously been his deputy. A raid on the United Nations offices in Sanaa on Sunday led to the detention of at least 11 UN personnel, the body said. The Houthis have given no reason for the raid but they have held a number of Yemeni employees of the UN and other aid agencies in the past on suspicion of spying.
    Israel said on Friday its airstrike had targeted the Houthis’ chief of staff, defense minister and other senior officials and that it was verifying the outcome.
    The fate of the Houthis’ powerful defense minister, Mohamed Al-Atifi, who runs the Missiles Brigades Group, remains unclear as he has not made an appearance since the attack.

    THORN IN ISRAEL’S SIDE
    Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, who remains alive, has emerged in recent years as one of Iran’s most prominent Arab allies and an enduring thorn in Israel’s side after it weakened many of its enemies in the region, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
    Since Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas began in October 2023, the Houthis have attacked vessels in the Red Sea in what they describe as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
    The Red Sea attacks have drawn US and Israeli strikes. In May, President Donald Trump said the US would stop bombing the Houthis after a brief campaign, saying the group had agreed to halt interrupting important shipping lanes in the Middle East.
    But the Houthis, one of Iran’s few allies still standing since the Gaza war spilled across the Middle East, vowed to continue attacking Israel and Israeli-linked shipping. The Houthis said on Monday they had launched a missile toward the Liberia-flagged Israeli-owned tanker ‘Scarlet Ray’ ship near Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port city of Yanbu.

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  • Probiotic enhances lovastatin efficacy but high doses pose risks

    Probiotic enhances lovastatin efficacy but high doses pose risks


    A recent study published in Engineering has shed light on the complex interactions between probiotics and drugs, particularly focusing on the effects of the probiotic Lacticaseibacillus paracasei Zhang (LCZ) on the cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin.


    The study began with in vitro experiments, in which the researchers observed that LCZ could metabolise lovastatin into its active form, lovastatin hydroxy acid.


    This metabolic conversion suggested that LCZ might enhance the drug’s activity. However, the in vivo experiments in Syrian golden hamsters painted a more nuanced picture.


    The researchers administered various combinations of LCZ and lovastatin to hyperlipidemic hamsters and monitored their health outcomes.


    All in vivo experiments were conducted following the protocols approved by the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University Laboratory Animal Ethical Committee (IACUC-20220007).


    In the in vivo phase, the researchers found that combining LCZ with low-dose lovastatin (2.5 mg/kg) led to a significant reduction in body weight and blood lipid levels, with no adverse effects on liver, kidney or muscle function.


    This combination therapy was more effective than lovastatin alone, indicating that LCZ could enhance the drug’s absorption and efficacy.


    However, when higher doses of lovastatin (10 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg) were combined with LCZ, the hamsters exhibited increased mortality rates.


    This suggests that although LCZ can boost lovastatin absorption, it may also exacerbate the drug’s toxicity at higher doses.


    To understand the underlying mechanisms, the researchers analysed the gut microbiota and metabolites of the hamsters.


    They found that LCZ altered the gut metabolite environment, potentially enhancing the solubility and absorption of lovastatin.


    This modulation of the gut environment likely contributed to the increased efficacy observed with low-dose combinations. However, at higher doses, the enhanced absorption led to toxic levels of lovastatin in the bloodstream.


    The study also included a detailed analysis of liver gene expression, revealing that the combination therapy upregulated genes involved in bile acid and drug metabolism.



    This upregulation suggests that the enhanced absorption of lovastatin led to increased metabolic activity in the liver, further supporting the observed therapeutic effects.


    The findings highlight the importance of dose control in probiotic-drug combinations.


    Although LCZ can significantly enhance the efficacy of low-dose lovastatin, the potential for increased toxicity at higher doses underscores the need for careful clinical evaluation.


    The study provides valuable insights into the interactions between probiotics and drugs, emphasising the potential benefits and risks of such combinations.


    Future research should focus on clinical trials to further explore the therapeutic potential and safety of LCZ-lovastatin combinations in humans.


    Additionally, more detailed studies on the gut microbiota and metabolite profiles could help elucidate the precise mechanisms underlying these interactions.


    This research not only contributes to the field of pharmacomicrobiomics but also has important implications for personalised medicine, wherein probiotic interventions could be tailored to optimise drug efficacy and minimise adverse effects.

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    • Inner Mongolia Agricultural University

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  • Colon cancer diagnosis is on the up in Malaga, but so is the survival rate with early detection being key

    Colon cancer diagnosis is on the up in Malaga, but so is the survival rate with early detection being key

    Monday, 1 September 2025, 11:31

    Colorectal cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the province of Malaga, with a total of 1,400 new cases in 2024, followed by breast (1,283), prostate (1,222) and lung (1,088) cancer, according to the observatory of the Spanish association against cancer (AECC). Moreover, this figure has grown by almost 25% in just a decade. At the same time, survival, both in patients in whom this disease is located early and in those who already have metastases, is also on the rise. More than 60% of those diagnosed will manage to overcome it.

    HM Hospitales oncologist Dr Laura Medina has highlighted the “remarkable” increase year after year, usually linked to changes in lifestyle habits. “Every day we are more sedentary. We have less and less healthy lifestyle habits, there is an increasing consumption of refined flour, we eat less vegetables, we move less and that is added to the pace of life we have, with a lot of stress and poor quality rest: there are more and more diagnoses of digestive tumours in general and of colon cancer in particular, including in younger patients,” she warned.

    Dr Medina explained to SUR that the incidence of this cancer is increasing in people under the age of 50, although it is usually associated with older people. According to her, there is “no gene or other alteration” that could explain this, which implies that people’s lifestyles are the culprit.

    The colon is a very long organ, with a right side, a left side and a third transversal side. “Depending on where the tumour is located, we will have certain symptoms or others: we should be alert when we have unjustified abdominal pain, heavy digestion that we did not have before, changes in bowel habits, i.e. constipation or a tendency to diarrhoea or bleeding when we have a bowel movement,” said Dr Laura Medina, adding that these symptoms can be confused with others that are consistent with various diseases such as “irritable bowel syndrome or haemorrhoids – banal symptoms that are also very common; or simply the typical gas that is produced because we eat quickly, because we have bad digestion”. “You have to be alert and, if the symptoms persist, consult a doctor.”

    Prevention

    The best prevention is “to try to eat as varied a diet as possible, with foods rich in fibre, fruit, vegetables and whole grains; to move and exercise; and to reduce stress levels”. When we also avoid tobacco and reduce alcohol consumption, “we could prevent practically 30% of all tumours, including digestive tumours”.

    Dr Medina also remindedd both men and women in Spain that they can be screened for colon cancer. “From the age of 50, everyone should have a faecal occult blood test, which is a very simple test that is done through the GP. If it is positive, a colonoscopy from the age of 50 onwards is recommended,” the oncologist said.

    Mortality rates associated with this common type of tumour are falling, above all thanks to screening and prevention campaigns. “With these early detection techniques, we can detect colon cancer in its early stages and be able to operate on patients. The only proper treatment today is surgery. This means that our patients are living longer and mortality is decreasing,” Dr Medina said.

    Of the patients who undergo a surgery, “practically after five years, 90% are alive and will continue to live; for a patient who is diagnosed with metastasis, the average survival time has gone from 24 to 36 months. We can say that the average is 30 months”. Early detection campaigns, therefore, have ensured that, if the tumour is detected in the early stages, survival is 88%. More than 60% (64% in women and 63% in women) of colorectal cancer patients will survive, according to estimates by the Andalusian society of medical oncology (SAOM).

    Early detection

    As Dr Laura Medina highlighted, this cancer also affects women (535 cases in 2024), although it is somewhat more common in men (865). The major advances involve continuing the work on early detection, which is key to prolonging life and operating early.

    “As for the patients we diagnose with an inoperable disease, nowadays the advances are mainly focused on finding molecules that can serve as specific targets: that is, we try to find mutations in genes that serve as a target, the core of which we attack with drugs.” In addition, there are other types of tumours that have special characteristics that “make them sensitive to immunotherapy”. In any case, the main concern is the decreasing age of those diagnosed. “The average age of the people we treated 20 years ago was 55 years and now, unfortunately, we are treating patients under the age of 40.”

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