- The World Health Organization (WHO) released two reports informing that a popular artificial sweetener, Aspartame, may cause cancer. Aspartame is used as a sweetener in diet sodas, chewing gums, and other food products. While occasional consumption of products containing Aspartame can hardly do any damage, the harm can come from consuming the substance in large doses, Children are more likely to be at risk as they use products containing Aspartame more often than adults, and the implication is that it would be best to limit such products consumption. The article related to the issue was published in Lancet Oncology. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) disagreed with the conclusion that the studies on Aspartame support classifying Aspartame as a possible carcinogen.
- Scientists from Scotland discovered the exact mechanism of how bowel cancer evades immune system surveillance, which was a mystery to the biomedical community for quite a long time. This discovery paves the way to “potentially reversing or preventing this process”. The study was published in Cancer Immunology Research.
- Scientists from Harvard and several other institutions in the U.S. created an AI tool that could decode a brain tumor’s DNA to determine its molecular type during surgery. This information could otherwise take days to weeks to obtain. This information enables neurosurgeons to decide how to proceed best in the Operating Room. The tool, called CHARM (Cryosection Histopathology Assessment and Review Machine), while freely available to other researchers, must be clinically validated and cleared by the FDA before being used in hospitals. The report on this tool was published in the journal Med.
- A new observational study contributed to the body of evidence linking obesity to cancer. The study was led by researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in collaboration with researchers from Spain and Germany. The study followed up 2.6 million Catalan adults for the median period of 9 years, it “showed that longer duration of, greater degree of, and younger age of onset of overweight and obesity during early adulthood (ages 18–40 years) are positively associated with the risk of developing 18 cancer types.” The study was published in Nature Communications.
- Scientists from Yale University conducted research that can “help predict, treat, or even prevent side effects” of immunotherapy. So far, predicting which patients are susceptible to developing side effects from immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors and which healthy organs will take the toll is impossible. Side effects may lead to either suspending immunotherapy treatment or prescribing immunosuppressants, which could negatively interfere with immunotherapy. The study was published in Nature.