Study Finds Curative Power Of Prayer Limited To Genital Warts
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New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Can weed actually mess with your cancer treatment? New research could have ‘major implications'
Talk about chronic relief. Cancer patients tend to use cannabis to manage side effects of their treatment and ease symptoms such as nausea, pain, insomnia and anxiety. 'Research has shown that there is a high rate of cannabis use among cancer patients — more than 50% in some studies, and up to 80% among those who also use tobacco,' said Dr. Lurdes Queimado, a professor of otolaryngology at the University of Oklahoma. 'But there is very little in the medical literature about how cannabis use affects the healing of wounds.' 4 Cancer can develop in the nasal cavity, sinuses, lips, mouth, salivary glands, throat and larynx. Lars Neumann – That's why Queimado is conducting a first-of-its-kind study to figure out if smoking pot impacts the healing process for head and neck cancer surgery. Head and neck cancers account for 4% of the cancers diagnosed in the US. Smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection are fueling a rise in these cases. Surgery is often the primary treatment for head and neck cancers — it generally involves removing tumors in the mouth, throat, voice box, sinuses and related areas. These operations tend to alter the appearance of the patient's face and neck as well as their ability to swallow and breathe. 4 University of Oklahoma researchers are assessing if smoking pot affects the healing process for head and neck cancer surgery. Africa Studio – Often, reconstructive surgery is needed to restore the form and function of the head and neck area after cancer treatment. 'Patients come to my office and ask if using cannabis will affect their reconstructive surgery outcome, and we just don't have enough data to counsel them with confidence,' said Dr. Mark Mims, a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and an OU assistant professor of otolaryngology and surgery. The OU study will follow 220 adult patients as they undergo tumor removal surgery for head and neck cancers, reconstruction and a six-month recovery. Participants will report their cannabis use, which will be verified through blood tests. The patients will be divided into four groups — cannabis users, tobacco users, cannabis and tobacco users and those who don't use either. 'We will monitor each group of patients for infections, bleeding, medical complications and scar healing,' Queimado said. 4 Preliminary data suggest that weed smokers — even those without cancer — have more inflammation and less immune function, which could slow wound healing and increase complications. H_Ko – 'And we will assess how they are using cannabis, whether it's smoking, vaping or edibles, because they are very different in the effects they have,' she added. 'The ultimate goal is to have information to guide the patient.' Queimado told The Post that the study will also explore the effects of CBD products on wound healing. CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) are two of the main chemicals in cannabis. THC produces the marijuana high while CBD may help reduce anxiety. 'CBD and THC have known immune suppressant effects,' Queimado said. Queimado's hypothesis, based on limited data, is that weed smokers — even those without cancer — have more inflammation and less immune function, which could slow wound healing and increase complications. The Presbyterian Health Foundation in Oklahoma City is funding the study. 4 A 2024 study suggested that smoking marijuana may increase your risk of developing head and neck cancers. Impact Photography – The findings could add to growing evidence that smoking weed may be dangerous to health. Research has suggested that it can raise the risk of lung cancer and heart attacks. And a study last year from the University of Southern California found that cannabis use elevates the odds of developing head and neck cancers. Queimado's team also plans to assess patients' responses to chemotherapy and radiation, which may be needed to complement cancer surgery. 'I think this study has the potential to have major implications for other types of cancer and surgeries, but also for chronic diseases because inflammation and immunity play a significant role in many conditions, such as autoimmune diseases,' Queimado said. 'I think there will be many opportunities for growth into other areas once we have established the framework of this study.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Precigen wins immunotherapy approval; Pfizer sickle cell drug fails trial
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. Today, a brief rundown of news involving Precigen and Pfizer, as well as updates from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, Superluminal Medicines and Generation Bio that you may have missed. The Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to a first-of-its-kind treatment for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, a rare and potentially life-threatening condition caused by persistent HPV infections. Thursday's clearance of Precigen's Papzimeos, an immunotherapy that helps clear HPV-infected cells, was based on study results showing a little more than half of drug recipients didn't need surgery within a year of therapy. Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research director Vinay Prasad, who rejoined the FDA this week, described the approval as proof 'randomized trials are not always needed to approve medical products.' That statement should be 'reassuring' to biotech investors concerned about stricter regulatory standards under Prasad, wrote Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Jennifer Kim. Precigen shares rose higher Friday on the news. — Ben Fidler An experimental Pfizer drug for sickle cell disease failed to meet its goal in a Phase 3 study, the company said Friday. Testing showed that treatment with inclacumab, a drug Pfizer acquired via its 2022 buyout of Global Blood Therapeutics, failed to significantly reduce versus placebo the pain crises people with sickle cell often experience. Pfizer said it would share analyses of the data with the scientific and patient community in 'due course.' Last year, the company pulled from market another sickle cell drug, Oxbryta, that it gained from Global Blood, citing safety concerns. The company plans to provide updates on Oxbryta and a third Global Blood drug, the experimental osivelotor, when they become available. — Ned Pagliarulo Eli Lilly will collaborate with biotechnology startup Superluminal Medicines to develop new drugs for cardiometabolic diseases and obesity. Through the alliance, the two intend to discover and advance small molecule medicines aimed at undisclosed G protein-coupled receptor, or GPCR, targets 'relevant' to those conditions. Lilly will receive exclusive rights to the compounds emerging from the deal, while Superluminal could get up to $1.3 billion in total payouts, including an unspecified upfront payment as well as an equity investment, the companies said Thursday. — Ben Fidler Autolus Therapeutics is delaying launching its leukemia cell therapy Aucatzyl in Europe following approval there as the company 'evaluates potential pricing and feasibility of market entry opportunities' in some countries. Launch in Germany is on hold and Autolus 'does not anticipate any EU sales of Aucatzyl in 2025 and 2026,' the company said in its second quarter earnings report. In the U.K., where Aucatzyl has also been approved, a government cost-effectiveness monitor has initially decided not to pay for it. Autolus said it 'will continue to work towards a pathway for patient access to therapy in the U.K.' Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in November 2024, Aucatzyl earned just shy of $30 million in sales in the first six months of 2025, all from the U.S. — Jonathan Gardner Generation Bio revealed preclinical results suggesting a delivery technology it's developing can effectively send nucleic acid payloads into T cells. But the company also said this week that it may not be able to raise the funds to prove that approach works in humans and, as a result, began a strategic review that could end in a sale or merger. Generation will lay off roughly 90% of its workforce, including all of its research and development staff, by the end of October. Company shares climbed 60%, though they've lost much of their value since the company's initial public offering in 2020. — Ben Fidler Recommended Reading Eli Lilly's Julie Gilmore on finding up-and-coming companies and backing small biotechs Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Vox
a day ago
- Vox
The decline of drinking, explained in one chart
is a senior editorial director at Vox overseeing the climate teams and the Unexplainable and The Gray Area podcasts. He is also the editor of Vox's Future Perfect section and writes the Good News newsletter. He worked at Time magazine for 15 years as a foreign correspondent in Asia, a climate writer, and an international editor, and he wrote a book on existential risk. Today, around 8,200 or so Americans will turn 21. Which means, of course, they will become eligible to engage in that time-honored habit of adulthood: drinking alcohol. (I'm sure absolutely none of them did so before they turned 21. I certainly did not, or at least, would not admit to doing so in this piece, which I know my parents read.) Yet those who get the chance to legally order a beer or a wine or, God help them, a Long Island iced tea, may find the bar a little less crowded these days. According to a new survey released by Gallup this week, just 54 percent of Americans now say they drink alcohol. That's the lowest share since Gallup began tracking the question way back in 1939, six years after Prohibition was repealed. Even Americans who do continue to drink say they are drinking less, and say they're increasingly concerned about the health impacts of alcohol. A narrow majority of Americans say that even moderate drinking is unhealthy, while reported drinking frequency also hit record lows. (Only 24 percent reported having a drink over the past 24 hours, while 40 percent said it had been more than a week since their last glass.) And while you might be skeptical of self-reporting drinking habits — doctors certainly are — the most recent sales data says that per-capita ethanol consumption in the US has fallen from nearly 2.8 gallons in the early 1980s to around 2.5 in 2022. Related Unless you happen to be in the booze business, this shift is 100-proof good news (with a few caveats). Drinking can lead to various social and medical ills, from the familial and financial devastation of alcoholism at the high end to increases in the risk of cancer and other diseases even at the lower end. But in a culture which seems to celebrate and encourage drinking, what's up with more Americans putting down their glasses? No safe level Americans of a certain age — i.e., me — probably remember hearing that a glass of red wine a day could be good for you. Which, looking back, seems absurd. Ethanol in any form is a toxin. But thanks in part to what became known as the 'French paradox' — the fact that the French showed low levels of heart disease despite their love of rich, fatty foods and glasses of Bordeaux — conventional wisdom settled on the idea that moderate drinking could actually benefit our overall health. If only. In the argot of Alcoholics Anonymous, medical science is having a 'moment of clarity' around alcohol. It turns out that 'no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health,' as the World Health Organization put it in 2023. One major meta-analysis that same year found that there are in fact no mortality benefits at low levels of alcohol consumption, and that risk for a number of health threats rises as consumption increases. The decline and fall of teen drinking Whether or not American adults are actually listening to their doctors, the decline in alcohol consumption is real. What's even more remarkable — and even better news — is the sharper decline in drinking among people who legally shouldn't be doing it at all: the underage. In 2024, according to one long-running youth survey, 42 percent of 12th graders reported drinking alcohol, down significantly from 75 percent in 1997 (which happens to be the year I graduated high school, and no, I will not be commenting on which side of the survey I fell on). For 10th graders it was 26 percent (down from 65 percent) and for eighth graders it was 13 percent (down from 46 percent in 1997, which yikes). For those underage Americans who are drinking, the percentage who engage in binge drinking has also fallen in recent years, albeit less sharply. Alcohol is really bad — with one caveat Here's one of the more unbelievable stats I've ever seen: scholars believe that something like 40 percent of all murders involve the use of alcohol. That's just one example of the effects of dangerous levels of alcohol consumption. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates around 178,000 excess deaths each year from alcohol abuse, of which over 12,000 were deaths in drunk driving accidents — meaning one out of every three car crash deaths might not have happened without alcohol. Less alcohol consumption means less of all of this. Fewer violent deaths in drunken homicides or car crashes, and fewer lives cut short over the long term because of alcohol-connected illness. It means fewer families torn apart by alcohol abuse, and fewer children who endure the long-term trauma of being the child of an alcoholic. To be clear, I'm not suggesting everyone stop drinking — or start drinking just to make friends. I myself enjoy a drink, and for now I'm comfortable with the trade-off that comes with moderate drinking. But the benefits to the country overall of less drinking are impossible to dismiss. That's worth raising a mocktail to. A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!
