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Medscape
4 hours ago
- Medscape
Phone-Based Program Boosts Weight Loss in Breast Cancer
TOPLINE: A telephone-based weight-loss intervention led to clinically significant weight loss in women with stage II/III breast cancer and overweight or obesity, according to a 1-year analysis of a phase 3 study. Although effective across all demographic and racial/ethnic subgroups, the intervention was more effective in postmenopausal and non-Black/non-Hispanic participants. METHODOLOGY: Obesity is associated with increased risks for recurrence, mortality, comorbidities, and poor quality of life in patients with breast cancer. Prior weight-loss studies were small, included mostly non-Hispanic White patients, and used in-person formats that may not be applicable to a broader population. Researchers conducted a secondary analysis of a phase 3 clinical trial (BWEL) involving 3180 women (mean age, 53.4 years) with stage II/III human epidermal growth factor receptor-negative breast cancer and a BMI ≥ 27 who were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive either a 2-year telephone-based weight-loss intervention (n = 1591) plus standard health education materials or health education materials alone (n = 1589; control group). The weight loss intervention promoted weight loss through caloric restriction (1200-1800 kcal/d based on baseline body weight) and increased physical activity (150 min/wk during the first 6 months, increasing to 225 min/wk thereafter). The primary endpoint for this prespecified secondary analysis was weight change at 1 year. TAKEAWAY: At 1 year, participants in the intervention group achieved a mean weight loss of 4.3 kg, equivalent to 4.7% of baseline body weight, whereas those in the control group gained a mean of 0.9 kg or 1.0% of baseline body weight (mean between-group difference, 5.3 kg; P < .001). At 1 year, 46.5% of participants in the intervention group achieved a clinically significant weight loss of at least 5% of baseline weight compared with 14.3% in the control group (P < .001); similarly, 22.5% in the intervention group and 5.0% in the control group lost 10% of baseline body weight (P < .001). Subgroup analyses showed greater weight loss among postmenopausal women (mean difference, 6.37%) than among premenopausal women (mean difference, 4.82%), and less weight loss among Black and Hispanic participants than among participants of other racial and ethnic groups (mean differences, 3.74% and 4.14%, respectively, vs 6.11%). Participants in the weight loss intervention completed a median of 26 out of 30 planned coaching calls during the first year, and weight loss was positively correlated with the number of calls completed (correlation coefficient, 0.57; P = .02); premenopausal women participated in fewer calls than postmenopausal women (median, 25 vs 26; P < .001), and Black and Hispanic women participated in fewer calls than those of other racial and ethnic groups (median, 23 and 22 vs 26; P < .001). IN PRACTICE: These findings 'demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a lifestyle based WLI [weight loss intervention] as a part of breast cancer treatment,' the study authors concluded. 'While BWEL showed successful weight loss on average, it is not clear if the amount achieved will be sufficient to produce meaningful improvement in prognosis,' Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, University of Washington, Seattle, wrote in an accompanying editorial, further adding that 'trials of weight loss treatments that produce greater degrees of weight loss are also needed in patients with breast cancer, both to determine risk-benefit ratios and to provide treatment options for this population.' SOURCE: The study, led by Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, was published online in JAMA Oncology. LIMITATIONS: Over 20% had missing 1-year weight data due to pandemic-related virtual visits, disproportionately among younger, Black, hormone receptor-negative, and lower-income participants. Women in the study were participating in the coaching calls during the collection of weight loss data. Detailed diet and activity data were limited to a subset, precluding full behavioral analyses. DISCLOSURES: The study was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Additional support was provided to Ligibel by the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and American Cancer Society. Several study authors reported receiving grants or personal fees and having other ties with various sources. Additional disclosures are noted in the original article. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Forbes
5 hours ago
- Forbes
How Modular Manufacturing Can Help Create Abundance
Scott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux, a solar energy innovator in perovskites to make solar energy more powerful and cost effective. We live in an age of incredible technological advancement, yet we face critical shortages and high costs in many essential areas. To solve the challenge, I believe we need to build more. A lot more. What do we need to build exactly? The simple and not overly glib answer: everything. We need more electricity and more renewable energy to power today's technologies and tomorrow's innovations. We need more resilient supply chains, more affordable healthcare options, more effective public transportation, more opportunities for advanced education and skills training, and more sustainable food production systems. Solving the problem of artificial scarcity is a policy issue, but it's also a manufacturing and production problem. In that respect, I believe modular intelligent manufacturing can help accelerate the pace of production while driving down costs and enhancing local economic benefits. Here's how: Issues With Current Manufacturing Methodologies Traditional, centralized manufacturing models, while powerful, can often create bottlenecks, inflate costs and limit accessibility. For example, building out a complete supply chain in the solar industry is currently a very expensive undertaking as producing key components such as polysilicon safely and cost-effectively requires large campuses and significant capital expenditures. In today's typical solar manufacturing supply chain model, the foundation is silicon, most of which is processed in China's Xinjiang Province. Quartzite is extracted and melted using readily available but dirty coal and converted to polysilicon. Similarly, contract manufacturing of electronic goods has often leveraged large campuses with massive dormitories housing potentially coerced workers who produce products that we use daily. This race to the bottom has driven a transition from West to East and increased wealth for the recipients, but at the expense of the ultimate consumer. While these examples are particular to my industry, the solar sector, they are emblematic of the bottlenecks, ethical quagmires and inherent vulnerabilities in existing manufacturing methodologies. How We Can Innovate For Abundance And Localized Production The days of mega-campuses and complex international supply chains should be on their way out. To unlock abundance, a transformation in supply chains and manufacturing is needed and enabled by recent innovations. The issue often cited by manufacturing executives is that centralized manufacturing models may be less efficient than we think. For instance, large campuses mean large human infrastructure, and AI agents have the potential to greatly simplify tasks that would normally require a large staff that are not directly adding value to the product. Likewise, the future of manufacturing engineering could also be streamlined, where a single engineer may command hundreds of agents processing experiments from data and evaluating thousands of parameters far more quickly than their human counterparts. With AI, process control moves from a strictly defined recipe to fluid feed-forward, feedback control that determines the ideal operating point given thousands of input parameters based on tens of millions of micro-experiments. As a result, innovation can be accelerated and products manufactured more quickly. In order for this to happen, we need to focus on exploring more readily available material systems that put the 'hard' in 'hardware' and source from multiple locations to ensure supply chain survivability alongside sustainability. These two are not mutually exclusive. Modular intelligent manufacturing is an approach where production processes are designed to be readily scaled in sections or 'modules.' These modules can be aligned with the amount of capital available, allowing companies to build out multiple production lines or nodes—often at a more affordable price point. Modular intelligent manufacturing also strives to package production in such a way that it can be deployed almost anywhere, so producers can leverage local job seekers to spread the economic benefits of manufacturing jobs across the widest possible part of the market. The implications for housing and solar power could be enormous. According to the Urban Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization, modular housing can speed up the time from permit to completion by two months compared to stick builds, while also making units more affordable. Similarly, modular intelligent manufacturing in the solar sector could enable localized, cost-effective production. This change can happen rapidly. In my experience, using automation and trained agents, production sites can be set up in days, not months. In closing, we need to build more, faster and more efficiently to address societal needs. Manufacturing abundance doesn't have to be an esoteric dream. We can bring it to fruition right now. Modular intelligent manufacturing can help, allowing us to build more, more efficiently and more cost-effectively. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
This Hypersonic Space Plane Will Fly From London to N.Y.C. in an Hour
After the NASA space shuttle was retired in 2011, it seemed like space planes might become relics. But they are on a comeback. U.S. companies Sierra Space Corp., Dawn Aerospace, and Radian Aerospace have all introduced their own versions of an aircraft that takes off like a plane, but soars like a rocket. Virgin Galactic soon plans to introduce the Delta version of its space plane. Among militaries, the U.S. Air Force operates a robotic orbital space plane called the X-37B, while China has a similar aircraft called Shelong. The European Space Agency (ESA) recently jumped into the burgeoning space-plane sector, announcing funding for a new research program called Invictus, which will develop a hypersonic space plane capable of Mach 5 (3,386 mph). The aircraft could fly from London to New York in an hour. If plans stay on track, it could be operational by 2031. More from Robb Report WatchTime New York Returns This Fall, With a Record 44 Luxury Brands Designer Judith Leiber's Former East Hampton Home Is Back on the Market for $7 Million This $6 Million Georgia Estate Has a Guesthouse That's a Historical Landmark U.K. consulting firm Frazer-Nash will lead the project, which will use technology developed by Reaction Engines Ltd., a private firm launched in 1989 that previously designed a space plane called Skylon. That, in turn, was based on a 1982 concept called the Horizontal Take-Off and Landing (HOTOL) space plane. Last year, Reaction Engines ran into financial difficulties and went out of business. Invictus plans to incorporate the 'pre-cooler' technology from Reaction's SABRE (Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine) for its new aircraft. Combining aspects of jet and rocket propulsion, the engine pulls oxygen out of the air at lower atmospheric levels to reduce the need to carry propellant, resulting in a much lighter, more efficient aircraft. In space, it will be fueled by liquid hydrogen. 'Aircraft that fly at hypersonic speeds—more than five times the speed of sound—face extremely high temperatures due to shock heating and the friction from the air,' a Frazer-Nash rep told 'Typical aircraft engines cannot operate in these conditions, as the air is too hot to handle.' The pre-cooler technology, which chills superheated air in a fraction of a second, has already been successfully tested on conventional jet engines. 'It allows these aircraft engines to travel at hypersonic speeds,' says the rep. If Invictus reaches its full potential, it could help unlock the next generation of space planes. 'We are laying the foundation for aircraft that take off like planes and reach orbit like rockets—revolutionizing both terrestrial and orbital transportation,' said Tomasso Ghidini, head of ESA's mechanical department in a statement. 'That will redefine how we move across the planet and reach beyond it.' The Invictus team is tasked with having a viable concept ready in 12 months and a working hypersonic jet by 2031. Best of Robb Report The 2024 Chevy C8 Corvette: Everything We Know About the Powerful Mid-Engine Beast The World's Best Superyacht Shipyards The ABCs of Chartering a Yacht Click here to read the full article.
