Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Immunotherapy Emerges Victorious Over Woman's Bulletproof, 'Undruggable' Cancer
The remarkable recovery of a woman with advanced colon cancer, after treatment with cells from her own immune system, may lead to new options for thousands of other patients with colon or pancreatic cancer, researchers are reporting. Her treatment was the first to successfully target a common cancer mutation that scientists have tried to attack for decades. Until now, that mutation has been bulletproof, so resistant to every attempt at treatment that scientists have described it as “undruggable.” (Grady, 12/7)
Researchers in Spain have taken a key step in unraveling one of nature’s most malignant mysteries: How do cancerous tumor cells that establish a beachhead in one organ strike out in search of new territory to colonize? And more important, how might they be stopped? (Healy, 12/7)
In other public health news —
New research demonstrates that, in mice whose brains are under attack by Alzheimer’s dementia, exposure to lights that flicker at a precise frequency can right the brain’s faulty signaling and energize its immune cells to fight off the disease. Light therapy for Alzheimer’s is miles from being ready to treat patients — even those with the earliest signs of the disease. But the new research has already prompted creation of a start-up company — Cognito Therapeutics Inc. — to approach the Food and Drug Administration about clinical trials, and to explore ways to deliver precisely calibrated flickers of light to human research subjects. (Healy, 12/7)
Older women who look on the bright side of life were less likely to die in the next several years than their peers who weren't as positive about the future. The research, published Wednesday in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the latest to find an association between a positive sense of well-being and better health, though it's not yet clear whether one causes the other. (Hobson, 12/7)
It’s about to get a lot easier to get hearing aids. The Food and Drug Administration launched an effort Wednesday to make the devices available over the counter, a move that could eventually save thousands of dollars for hearing-impaired Americans. The agency said it will immediately stop enforcing a requirement that patients get a medical evaluation before obtaining hearing aids and consider creating a new category of over-the-counter products, which will encourage new manufacturers to step into the market. (Ross, 12/7)
