Helix Human Services holds Pride flag-raising ceremony in Springfield
One local organization marked the occasion with a special flag-raising ceremony. The Springfield nonprofit Helix Human Services hosted the flag-raising on Tuesday as a colorful symbol of inclusion, acceptance, and hope.
DCR partners with local LGBTQ+ organizations to host Pride Hikes in Mass.
Despite progress made in recent years, the LGBTQ+ community still faces political attacks and discrimination. This event is just one example of how Helix is working towards creating safe spaces and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. It's also helping to build resilience and strength amongst the LGBTQ+ community.
'I think now today it's incredibly important to make sure that we recognize individuals,' said Helix Human Services CEO Mark Paglia. 'And under the climate we live in every day, celebrate individuals, celebrate who they are and who they want to be.'
Helix has started programs and services for the LGBTQ plus community. This includes their SHARP residential program which is a safe home for young adults to support youth who've experienced trauma with moderate to severe mental-health and behavioral-health challenges and may be struggling with their personal identity.
And during this event, the non-profit also celebrated 160 years of serving the Springfield community.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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New York Post
18 hours ago
- New York Post
NJ ‘Moms for Liberty' leader claims Girl Scouts fired her for not promoting Pride Month activism
A New Jersey Girl Scout troop leader who was fired by the renowned youth organization claimed she was let go for not bringing her group to LGBTQ+ events during Pride Month. Alexandra Bougher, a 45-year-old Moms for Liberty chapter chair in Bergen County, was released by two members of Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey during a phone call on Wednesday, she said. 3 Alexandra Boughter, 45, concluded she was removed from the Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey for sharing anti-LBGTQ+ stances online. Instagram/@alexandrab444 Advertisement Bougher said the pair who fired her didn't elaborate on their reasoning and only vaguely pointed to a violation of their code of conduct. She said that her daughter was also removed from the scouts as part of her own excommunication. She independently concluded that the entire ordeal had to do with a comment she shared in June responding to a post on the Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey's social media celebrating Pride Month. 'I reposted it and I said, 'Just to be clear, my troop will not be doing this,'' Bougher told NJ Advance Media. Advertisement 'I guess that's the one. They actually refused to tell me which one it was, but I'm assuming it was that one since it was pulled off their site.' 3 Boughter said she commented that her troop would not be participating in Pride Month celebrations. Facebook/Moms for Liberty Boughter was a seven-year leader with the troops and led roughly 30 girls before she was canned. She said she was appalled by the Girl Scouts' apparent shift towards left-wing advocacy, including promoting LGBTQ+ events and Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Advertisement 'And we were like, this is not what Girl Scouts is about, and it's also dangerous — bringing young children there. We sort of saw that change and some other things too, but you know, I kept my mouth shut, I kept my troop — they're all friends with each other. They can do those events and we'll do our own thing, you know,' Boughter told the outlet. Her firing came two months after sharing a since-deleted post online that spurred threats of violence against a local church displaying a pride flag, reported. 3 Boughter worked with the Girl Scouts for seven years. X/@AlexandraBough3 She shared a post condemning a local church's display of a Progressive Pride Flag, which includes black and brown stripes representing queer folks in marginalized communities and other colors for transgender pride. Advertisement Many of the comments on Boughter's post repeatedly insisted that the expansion of the Pride Flag included representation for 'minor-attracted persons,' which is not true. The church added that 'one commentator suggested the only way to deal with us was with 'gasoline and a match'.' Boughter still stood by her original message and condemnation, but denounced the calls to violence. The Post has reached out to Girl Scouts and the northern New Jersey chapter for comment.
CNN
3 days ago
- CNN
The best pillows for stomach sleepers in 2025, tried and tested
The best pillows for stomach sleepers we tested Best pillow for stomach sleepers: Helix Low-Loft Talalay Latex Pillow Best cooling pillow for stomach sleepers: Helix GlacioTex Low-Loft Cooling Memory Foam Pillow Best adjustable pillow for stomach sleepers: Coop Sleep Goods Original Adjustable Pillow Best hotel pillow for stomach sleepers: Saatva Standard-Loft Latex Pillow I've always been a dedicated stomach sleeper, even though it may not be the best sleeping position for your neck and back. Stomach sleeping is one of the most challenging sleeping positions for maintaining spinal alignment, so if you prefer sleeping like this, it's essential to have a good low-loft pillow to stay comfortable all night. Over six weeks, I rotated through nine popular models to crown the best pillow for stomach sleepers. I adjusted their fill, evaluated the support and took more than my fair share of naps to figure out which pillows are best for giving stomach sleepers a great night's sleep — and which are best to skip. Here are the four I recommend. Helix Low-Loft Talalay Latex Pillow My top pick, the Helix Low-Loft Talalay Latex Pillow, strikes the ideal balance between softness and structure. It offers a bouncy, supportive feel that none of the other pillows matched, alongside an incredibly soft and breathable cover. It is now my go-to pillow after testing. Helix GlacioTex Low-Loft Cooling Memory Foam Pillow This GlacioTex cooling pillow combines the ideal loft of the Talalay with a cooling cover that's chilly to the touch. Its contoured memory foam core molded to my neck and cradled my head as I slept, keeping me comfortably cool all night long. Coop Sleep Goods Original Adjustable Pillow The memory foam blended fill in Coop's Original Adjustable Pillow can be added or removed to fit your preferences of loft and support. It has a jacquard knit cover that feels like sleeping on my softest, most worn-in T-shirt. Saatva Standard-Loft Latex Pillow With a classic hotel feel that you can take home, the standard-loft Saatva Latex Pillow offered layers of down-alternative cotton and shredded latex fill, making it one of the most plush pillows I tested. Of all nine contenders, the Helix Low-Loft Talalay Latex Pillow instantly claimed first place in my book. Its single-piece Talalay latex core provides buoyant support that you don't get with shredded or memory foam fills, including that of its sibling, the Helix GlacioTex Low-Loft Cooling Memory Foam Pillow. I initially tested each pillow for three nights, but I found myself almost sad when it was time to swap this latex pillow out so I could test the other options in the pool. That's how quickly its cloudlike softness and resilient snap won me over. The low loft of this Helix pillow is great for stomach sleepers. It's low enough to keep your neck and back neutral when your face is down and head is turned, yet moldable enough to slip an arm underneath for a touch of extra height without ever feeling overly lofty. Of all the pillows I tested, it had the best loft for stomach sleeping. Its core is made of Talalay latex, a material known for having a bouncy feel, and I found that it held its shape night after night and provided just the right amount of support. The two Helix pillows I tested held their shape the best out of my entire testing pool, in fact. I also thought the cover of this pillow was the most breathable and moisture‑wicking of all the pillows I tested. The cover blends polyester and Tencel, a breathable lyocell fabric, in a raised diamond pattern. I am a hot sleeper who usually opts for a cooling pillow, but I didn't wake up sweating or feeling clammy, even without any cooling-specific technology in this pillow. Instead, it offers a naturally cool, soft‑to‑the‑touch surface without the slick or plastic feel that some cooling pillows can have. It's so soft that I didn't even feel the need to use a pillowcase when sleeping because the cover is more comfortable than any pillowcase I own. The Helix Talalay Latex Pillow is easy to clean and machine-washable. I washed its removable cover on a gentle cycle and then tumble-dried it according to the pillow's instructions. The cover held up in the wash and did not shrink or pill. At $111, this pillow sits at the higher end of the price spectrum, but in my opinion, its lasting bounce, ideal loft and superior breathability justify every penny. But for the skeptical, Helix offers a 30-day sleep trial (though it's likely this is an insurance policy you won't need). The Helix Low-Loft Talalay Latex Pillow is currently the centerpiece on my bed and the stomach‑sleeper pillow I've continued to use night after night. Another winner from Helix, the GlacioTex Low-Loft Cooling Memory Foam Pillow was my favorite cooling pillow for stomach sleepers. Hot sleepers know that memory foam, though great for pressure relief when sleeping, is often destined to feel swampy and hot throughout the night. Helix's GlacioTex pillow breaks this curse, however, with its breathable diamond grid cover, just like our top pick, the Helix Talalay Latex Pillow. The cover features GlacioTex fabric that feels cool to the touch and stays that way all night, while its low-loft, ventilated memory-foam core enhances airflow for added comfort. The GlacioTex kept me the coolest overnight out of the pillows I tested. It was rivaled only by the Buffy Cloud Cooling Pillow, which was also very cooling but only on one side of the cover. The Helix pillow won out for its dual-sided cooling cover and comfortable memory foam. Another reason I loved this pillow so much is the firm but cushioned feel. I found that it held my head at just the right height to keep my neck from craning upward, something that can cause back pain when sleeping on your stomach. An excessively high loft was something I disliked about some of the thicker memory foam pillows I tried during testing, so I loved that the Helix GlacioTex Cooling Memory Foam Pillow offers a low-loft option to avoid this problem. Despite its firm initial feel, the GlacioTex pillow never felt rigid or unforgiving. Its memory foam core springs back quickly when pressed, and there's never a need to fluff it. That quick rebound also kept my neck and head cradled in a comfortable position, no matter how many times I tossed and turned throughout the night. The GlacioTex sits at a higher price point than many stomach-sleeper options, but it delivers everything a stomach sleeper wants in a cooling pillow: consistent chill, supportive foam that contours without compromising loft and a cover engineered for airflow. If you're a sweaty stomach sleeper who needs a pillow that stays cold, this is the model I recommend. For a more budget-friendly cooling option, the Buffy Cloud Cooling Pillow also impressed in my tests, though it only has a cooling cover on one side. Some people need a pillow with a bit more height, while others need a bit less. Coop's shredded memory foam and microfiber-filled pillow arrives generously stuffed, but a side zipper lets you remove or add fill until the pillow feels just right. The inner liner kept the loose fill contained as well, so adjustments weren't messy. Other adjustable pillows in this testing pool, like the Layla Kapok and Buffy Cloud Cooling Pillow, had similar double-lined systems to easily add and remove adjustable fill, but the Coop pillow was the most comfortable adjustable pillow I tested, thanks to its extra-cushy memory foam fill. I appreciated that the brand included an extra half‑pound bag of fill in the box, so I didn't have to store loose foam in a random plastic bag. Once I got the loft down to about 4 inches, the pillow cradled my head without forcing my neck into an awkward angle. Throughout testing, I found that this pillow was the most adjustable while sleeping. You can hug it, fold it in half and mold it into your perfect shape. And no matter how much I molded it into different shapes to fit my preference each night, it never lost its shape or supportive feel. Beyond being adjustable, the cover is machine-washable and holds up well to laundering. The cover was also up there with my top pick, the Helix Talalay Latex Pillow, when it came to softness. The cover is made from Coop's Lulltra fabric — a bamboo‑derived viscose and polyester blend — and it feels soft and breathes better than most all‑cotton shells I tested. Its breathability is thanks to a triangle-patterned texture that I felt helped it dump just the right amount of heat. If your body or mattress changes, you can also retune the loft in minutes rather than replacing the pillow, which is a plus. Coop backs that flexibility with a 100-day trial period and a five‑year limited warranty, which is one of the best policies of all the pillows I tested. The Saatva Latex Pillow recreates a cloudlike, upscale‑hotel sensation while still keeping a low enough profile for belly sleeping. Its standard-loft construction is dual‑layered: an outer chamber packed with down‑alternative microdenier fibers wrapped around a removable core of shredded natural latex. The feel of this pillow stood out to me because of its outer chamber of down-alternative fill, which gave me the same feeling as plush, indulgent pillows I've loved at expensive hotels. Compared to all-latex options like the Helix Talalay, the Saatva Latex Pillow feels less springy and more enveloping at first touch, but it still holds its shape through the night. Unlike pure-down hotel pillows, this Saatva pick resists that mid-sleep pancake effect and stays supportive without being too firm. The result is a hotel-feel pillow that's supportive enough to use for more than just a few nights on vacation. This pillow's standard loft is more like a low-loft option, which is the one I opted to test, but it can be adjusted further by removing its inner core. For me, removing the inner core created a flatter, more plush feel that I preferred when sleeping on my stomach. If you love a lofty pillow for reading in bed, leave the core in, and when it's time to sleep on your stomach, slip it out for better sleeping alignment. The first two layers of this pillow can both be machine-washed, which made it one of my favorites when testing. (Many other options in our testing pool can only have their covers washed.) I like that the first layer of fill can also be washed, because sometimes pillows can hold on to smells, especially after years of cooking in cramped studio apartments like mine. When washed and hung to dry per the brand's instructions, I noticed a few loose threads around the perimeter stitching on this pillow but no shrinkage, rips or pilling. I maintain it as a top pick because it has luxury hotel comfort with added adjustability for stomach sleeping. Saatva offers a 45-night home trial on this pillow alongside a one-year warranty. To test the best pillows for stomach sleepers, I compiled a product pool of nine of the most popular models and rotated them into my nighttime routine over six weeks. Here's everything I considered while testing. Comfort Comfort: I slept on each pillow for at least three nights across a six-week window. I paid attention to how my neck and back felt during and after sleep, whether I woke up or had to readjust and how quickly I settled back in when I flipped sides or returned to my stomach. Loft: The best pillows for stomach sleeping have a medium to low loft, but that can mean different things across brands. I standardized the size where possible, so differences in height weren't just about dimensions and I could tell which were best for this sleep position. Breathability: To isolate heat performance, I kept my bedroom temperature consistent and tracked whether I felt hot spots, trapped warmth or perspiration during my multi-night trials. Firmness and fill: I compared firmness across the pillows in my testing pool, ranking relative feel from plush to firm based on how much pressure it took to compress each pillow halfway. I also opened zippers or casings to inspect the fill type and quality. I noted shredded blends versus single-piece foam, pads or inserts, and I considered how those choices affected contour and support. Durability Ease of care: For care, I followed each brand's cleaning instructions exactly, washing and drying covers or pillows when allowed. I then checked for shrinkage, fabric wear, seam stress, odor changes or clumping afterward. Outside cover: I evaluated shell fabrics and construction up close, looking at fiber content, weave/knit, hand feel, stitch quality and any thin spots that might snag or tear over time. I also noted whether the cover helped or hurt breathability. Shape retention: After overnight use, I checked whether each pillow held its profile or developed flat spots and lumps. I looked out for early signs of that sad, deflated look we've all seen. Value Trial and return policy: Because pillows are personal, I checked each brand's trial, warranty and return policy on the product pages and recorded the details alongside my test notes so readers know how risk-free a tryout will be. Price point: I looked at what you get for the price. I evaluated each pillow's features and performance against its price to decide if it is worth the money. Stomach sleepers should look for a thinner, flatter pillow to prevent overextending the neck or putting pressure on the back. Joshua Tal, a New York-based sleep therapy psychologist and founder of Joshua Tal & Associates Sleep and Health Psychotherapists, recommends aiming for a low loft that elevates the spine just enough to sit in a neutral position. In terms of fill, microfiber, memory foam and latex are recommended for stomach sleeping. 'Microfiber or memory foam is good for a soft fill to stay flat and comfortable. Latex is an alternative to a more breathable material and a good option for stomach sleepers who are also hot sleepers,' said Carleara Weiss, a sleep scientist and assistant research assistant professor at the University at Buffalo Office of Nursing Research. Sue Gordon, a research professor at Flinders University in Australia who's studied the effects of pillows on sleep quality, suggests lying on any new pillow for at least 15 minutes before judging it. This time span lets your body settle so you can determine true comfort. Choosing a pillow is very personal, and every person's body has different needs. Beyond sleep position, consider other factors like fill, adjustability and cover material when choosing a pillow. Fill type can drastically impact the feel of a pillow. Single-piece latex fills spring back quickly and give support with a bouncy feel. Memory foam contours more closely to the head and can feel plusher, but it needs a lower loft to avoid neck discomfort when stomach sleeping. Shredded blends offer the most moldability but can get lumpy over time. Down-alternative fills feel cloudlike yet compress a lot when sleeping. If you run hot, a pillow with a cooling cover might be right for you. If you tend to change your sleep position, a pillow with adjustable fill may be the best choice. But no matter what, the best way to decide if a pillow is right for you is to sleep on it, which is why choosing a pillow with a good trial and return policy is important. If you're shopping online, double‑check the brand's return window. Many companies offer 30 to 100 nights of risk‑free sleep, which is great to help you try different options until you find the one that's just right for your body's specific needs. Buffy Cloud Cooling Pillow The Buffy Cloud Cooling Pillow delivers on its promises of being a cooling pillow, but it lost points during testing because only one side of the pillow has a cooling cover. Regardless, at $60, it's still a great cooling pillow at a reasonable price point. Buffy's Cloud Cooling Pillow uses two distinct fabrics on its hexagon-textured cover. One side is a soft polyester-viscose blend and the other is a silky, cool-to-the-touch polyethylene blend. My main gripe with this pillow was the split personality. Only one side uses the cooling fabric, and the non-cooling side doesn't breathe as well. I kept gravitating to the cool side because I felt warmer on the other, and on a cooling pillow, I'd prefer both sides to regulate temperature equally. Still, the fill is plush yet supportive for stomach sleeping, and because it's adjustable, you can zip it open to dial in the loft to keep your body's needs. Buffy also includes an extra bag for the shredded polyurethane foam, which makes storage easy. Buffy's trial policies are excellent as well. You can 'try before you buy' for seven days with no upfront payment and free shipping, then decide if you want to keep it. If it's not a match, there's a 60-day return window with free returns. Of all the pillows I tested, this was my favorite setup because it lets you test at home with zero hassle. For the price, it's a solid value; I just wish it were cool on both sides. Brooklinen Marlow Pillow I'd heard a lot about the Brooklinen Marlow Pillow before testing, so I was excited to see if it was worth the hype. Unfortunately, it fell short on comfort, which was my most important testing category. At about $50 on sale, the Brooklinen Marlow was the most affordable pillow in our testing pool, but that wasn't enough to win me over. First, the cover is thin and doesn't breathe well. Then, while not scratchy, it isn't particularly soft either. For a similar type of pillow that delivers on its aims of irresistible fluffiness, I'd point you to the Saatva Latex Pillow, which truly has that classic huggable plush. On the plus side, Marlow's loft matched what I needed for stomach sleeping and kept my neck and spine aligned. I also like its unique adjustable design. It has two side zippers that reveal mesh gussets so the fill can spread out for a softer feel or can be left zipped up for a firmer feel. This setup spared me the mess of scooping loose foam in and out, which a lot of adjustable pillows require. I found the pillow most comfortable with both sides unzipped, which Brooklinen recommends for stomach sleepers. That did soften the feel, but the Marlow still reads as too firm to me, even for stomach sleeping. The Brooklinen Marlow Pillow simply doesn't deliver the firm but moldable contour I want from a memory-foam pillow. The fill includes cooling foam, but the cotton cover is neither soft nor cool. I stayed cooler on alternatives with more breathable shells. Care is another drawback. The Marlow isn't machine-washable; it's spot clean or dry-clean only. I prefer removable covers that I can toss in the wash. Unless you specifically want a firmer, zipper-adjustable pillow and don't mind the care and breathability trade-offs, I'd skip this one. Casper Hybrid Pillow As a stomach sleeper, I just couldn't get comfortable on Casper's Hybrid Pillow. The loft sat too high for me, which pushed my neck out of alignment while lying flat. The shape of this pillow, which is taller through the center with lower, sloped sides, sometimes left my neck feeling unsupported when I turned my head. And because the fill isn't adjustable, there wasn't an easy fix. I did like the Casper's fill itself, though. The foam has a springy, medium firmness that cushions without collapsing and a huggable, weighty build. Still, two things held it back in testing: a chemical off-gassing smell that lingered for weeks and a cover that didn't breathe very well. I ended up pairing it with a cooling pillowcase to stay comfortable overnight. For the price, I expect better breathability and some adjustability. In my experience, this model suits back or combination sleepers much more than it does stomach sleepers, which tracks when it comes to why it performed so well in our best pillows for back sleepers testing. But if you sleep on your stomach most of the night, the height and center-heavy profile work against you. I kept reaching for this one to hug like a weighted plush but not to sleep on every day. It's a solid pillow with a satisfying, spongy feel, but it's not the right fit for stomach sleepers like Sleep Kapok Pillow Layla's Kapok Pillow is a solid option for an adjustable pillow with a supersoft cover, but I found that the similar Coop Sleep Goods Original Adjustable Pillow beat it in the test of comfort and moldability at a lower price point. Layla's pillow has a supersoft cover that I loved, and it may have been a winner had I not tried the Coop pillow. Layla's pillow is quite similar to Coop's, with adjustable fill and a zippered, removable cover that held up in the wash, but its fill is stiffer in comparison. I liked the breathable softness of its cover, but it had an off-gassing smell from the fill I wasn't a fan of. It just wasn't as good as the Coop pillow, which delivered more at a better price point. Layla does offer a good trial policy with a 30-night trial and a five-year warranty, but Coop beats it here too, with a trial period that extends to 100 days. Tempur-Pedic Cloud Hybrid Pillow I found the loft of the Tempur-Cloud Hybrid Pillow to be too high for stomach sleeping, even with much of the fill removed. It also lost marks because its zippers came open after a night of tossing and turning. This wasn't one of my favorites for stomach sleeping. Out of the box, the Tempur-Cloud Hybrid has a lofty profile that pushed my neck out of alignment when I lay flat on my stomach. It's adjustable, but even after pulling out a good amount of fill, the pillow still sat higher than I like for this position. The construction mixes a solid memory foam pad with removable shredded foam, so the feel lands in that 'supportive but soft' zone. I appreciated the pressure relief as the foam cushioned my face and jaw, but the overall height and center-heavy shape didn't work for me. If you tend to roll to your back, you may like the extra lift, but as a true stomach sleeper, I didn't. Still, the cover felt breathable, and I stayed comfortably cool on the standard version without needing the pricier cooling model. The scalloped, rounded-rectangle design also looks polished, but after a night of tossing and turning, both zippers worked their way open, leaving fill all over the floor, which was not fun to clean up. There's also no trial period, which I heavily disliked for a personal item like a pillow, especially one at a higher price point, and there is only a five-year warranty for manufacturing defects. I would not recommend this pillow for stomach sleepers. The following FAQs have been answered by New York-based sleep therapy psychologist Joshua Tal, sleep scientist Carleara Weiss and includes research from editorial intern Chelsea Collier. What's the best pillow for stomach sleepers? What's the best pillow for stomach sleepers? A thin yet firm pillow is the best for stomach sleepers, Tal said. The fill for a firm pillow like this should be latex, memory foam or packed down. Is sleeping on your stomach good for you? Is sleeping on your stomach good for you? While sleeping on your stomach might feel like the most comfortable option, this sleep position can cause neck and back pain when the spine is pushed into an arch throughout the night, according to CNN. Though it has drawbacks, adults who sleep on their stomachs are generally safe, Weiss said. 'The downside of it is an increased risk of neck and back strain when using a high pillow,' she said. However, a properly supportive pillow with a low loft helped me arch my back less when testing. For this article, we consulted the following experts to gain their professional insights. Sue Gordon, research director of Aged Care Research and Industry Innovation Australia at the Flinders University College of Nursing and Health Sciences in Adelaide, Australia Joshua Tal, a New York-based sleep therapy psychologist and founder of Joshua Tal & Associates Sleep and Health Psychotherapists Carleara Weiss, sleep scientist and assistant research professor at the University of Buffalo Office of Nursing Research with a doctorate in nursing CNN Underscored thoroughly tests the products in our testing guides and provides full transparency about how we test them. We have a skilled team of writers and editors with many years of testing experience who ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. We talk to top experts when relevant to make certain we are testing each product accurately, recommending only the best products and considering the pros and cons of each item. For this guide, editorial intern Chelsea Collier spoke to sleep experts and tested nine highly rated pillows recommended for stomach sleepers over a 45-day period.
Medscape
06-08-2025
- Medscape
New NHS Drug Option for Advanced Endometrial Cancer
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended a combination treatment for advanced endometrial cancer, calling it a 'major step forward'. The final draft guidance allows pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck Sharp & Dohme) to be used alongside carboplatin and paclitaxel within its marketing authorisation on the NHS. It applies to adults with previously untreated primary advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer. Treatment should stop after 2 years, or earlier if there is disease progression or unacceptable toxicity, NICE said. First-Line Immunotherapy This is the first time immunotherapy has been combined with chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for this type of cancer. Around 2100 people in England could benefit, the regulator said. The approval overturns NICE's earlier rejection in March, when it found insufficient evidence that the drug combination offered value for money. At the time, it recommended against its use in adults with previously untreated primary, advanced, or recurrent disease. Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecological cancer in the UK, with almost 10,000 people diagnosed each year. Only 15% of people diagnosed with stage 4 endometrial cancer survive for 5 years or more. People with untreated primary advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer usually have platinum-based chemotherapy, such as the combination carboplatin and paclitaxel. Trial Evidence Showed Reduced Mortality Risk NICE's updated decision was based on evidence from the KEYNOTE-868 study, an ongoing multicentre, randomised, double-blind, phase 3 trial. It is comparing the combination of pembrolizumab with chemotherapy, followed by pembrolizumab maintenance, against chemotherapy alone followed by placebo. NICE said that adding pembrolizumab to chemotherapy reduced the risk of death by 26% compared with chemotherapy alone. Trial data also suggest the treatment slows disease progression, although the effect on overall survival remains uncertain as the trial continues. 'Powerful' New Treatment Option Pembrolizumab is a monoclonal antibody that acts as an immune checkpoint inhibitor. It is administered intravenously and blocks the PD-1 protein on the surface of T cells, allowing them to identify and attack cancer cells. 'For people with advanced endometrial cancer, this innovative combination offers a powerful new treatment option,' said Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at NICE. 'It marks a major step forward,' she added. The treatment will be available immediately through England's Cancer Drugs Fund, following a commercial deal that provides the NHS with a discount. Helen Hyndman, the Eve Appeal's Ask Eve lead nurse, told Medscape News UK that NICE's recommendation was 'great news' and would 'offer hope, a better quality of life, and improve outcomes for those affected'.
