Paris: When Herve was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer, at age 40, he made a pact with himself.
“I told myself: it’s serious, but you’re in a battle — and you’re going to win,” the French teacher, who chose not to share his surname, told AFP.
“I vowed not to give up on my wife and children.”
Eight years later, after surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, Herve is still fighting and winning his battle.
He is one of thousands worldwide who have survived this deadly cancer for which there is no known cure.
Herve eagerly joined a research initiative led by a biotech start-up to understand what sets these exceptional survivors apart, hoping to replicate their survival stories on a larger scale.
“We call them outliers,” said Nicolas Wolikow, CEO and co-founder of Paris-based Cure51.
“For unknown reasons, these individuals take a different path when facing illness than others,” he told AFP.
According to its website, the start-up is creating “the first global clinical and molecular database of exceptional cancer survivors.”
The project focuses on patients who have lived more than three or five years after being diagnosed with three of the deadliest cancers: glioblastoma, metastatic pancreatic cancer, and small-cell lung cancer.
“They are very aggressive cancers for which new treatments have not been developed in the past 15 years,” Wolikow noted.
Yet a rare group — tens of thousands worldwide — defies what is generally considered a terminal diagnosis. The challenge is understanding why.
Search for ‘molecular signature’
One issue is that most research has been limited to North American or Western European patients, Wolikow explained.
The firm has partnered with 50 cancer centers worldwide to gather data from a broader range of survivors to address this.
So far, 1,300 patients have been recruited for the project.
Once the data is collected, “we will analyze medical reports, images, and tumor cells,” Wolikow said.
Patients will also complete the questionnaires on lifestyle, sleep, diet, and social support questionnaires.
Artificial intelligence algorithms will help identify common traits among survivors, comparing them to those who did not survive.
On Wednesday, Cure51 announced it had raised 15 million euros ($16 million) for the project. It hopes to secure further funding through partnerships with other biotech firms or pharmaceutical companies.
Olivia Le Saux, an oncologist in Lyon who is overseeing the project, said the goal is to identify a “molecular signature” that could explain these patients’ exceptional survival.
The ultimate aim is to develop new drugs or treatments that emulate the molecular characteristics of people who survive these aggressive cancers.
For Herve, there is satisfaction in seeing his doctor’s surprise as his tumor continued to show no signs of recurrence in his regular MRI scans.
“At each appointment, I could see the relief on his face,” said the teacher from Isere, a department in southeastern France.
Herve is pleased to contribute to the Cure51 project.
“I am fully aware of my extraordinary luck,” he said.
“If I could make a difference, now is the time.”
One or two bowel movements a day keep the doctor away. Study.
Washington: We all experience bowel movements, but how frequently should we go? A new study published Tuesday in Cell Reports Medicine highlights the impact of bowel movement frequency on overall health, with the best outcomes associated with having stools once or twice a day.
Previous studies have linked constipation and diarrhea with increased risks of infections and neurodegenerative diseases, respectively. However, these studies were conducted on patients with existing health issues, leaving it unclear if irregular bowel movements were a cause or a consequence of their conditions.
“I hope this research will prompt clinicians to consider the risks associated with irregular bowel movements more seriously,” said Sean Gibbons, senior author at the Institute for Systems Biology, in an interview with AFP. He noted that doctors often dismiss irregular bowel movements as a minor inconvenience.
Gibbons and his team gathered extensive data from over 1,400 healthy adult volunteers—encompassing clinical, lifestyle, and biological information, including blood chemistry, gut microbiome, and genetics. They categorized participants’ bowel movement frequencies into four groups: constipation (one or two movements per week), low-normal (three to six per week), high-normal (one to three per day), and diarrhea.
The study found that when stools remain in the gut for too long, microbes exhaust available fiber—normally fermented into beneficial short-chain fatty acids—and instead ferment proteins, producing harmful toxins like p-cresol sulfate and indoxyl sulfate.
“Even in healthy individuals with constipation, we observed an increase in these toxins in the bloodstream,” Gibbons said, noting that these toxins can be particularly taxing on the kidneys.
The team observed signs of inflammation and liver damage in those experiencing diarrhea. Diarrhea leads to excessive bile acid excretion, which the liver would otherwise recycle to help digest dietary fats.
Gut bacteria known as “strict anaerobes,” which are beneficial and thrive on fiber, flourish in the “Goldilocks zone” of one or two bowel movements per day. However, Gibbons emphasized the need for further research to define this optimal range more precisely.
The study also found demographic differences: younger individuals, women, and those with a lower body mass index tended to have less frequent bowel movements. Gibbons suggested hormonal and neurological differences and varying food intake may explain these differences.
The research indicated that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, adequate water intake, regular exercise, and a plant-based diet was strongly associated with optimal bowel movement frequency.
The next step in the research may involve designing a clinical trial to manage bowel movements in a large group of people over an extended period to explore its potential for disease prevention.
Weight-loss drugs linked with lower risk of obesity-related cancers
Blockbuster weight loss and diabetes drugs may lower patients’ risk of developing some common types of cancer that are closely linked to obesity, new evidence suggests.
Patients with Type 2 diabetes who were prescribed drugs known as glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1, developed fewer obesity-related cancers than patients who were treated with insulin, according to a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open. However, the newer drugs didn’t perform better than metformin, an older diabetes drug with known cancer risk reduction properties.
The study examined a group of of doctors,, including Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic, a diabetes treatment. Since the study concluded, two drugs that work similarly, Novo’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zepbo—have been approved for weight loss.
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The study is based on electronic health records of more than 1.6 million patients with Type 2 diabetes who have had the disease for 15 years, ending in November 2018. Since that was less than a year after Ozempic was introduced in the U.S.S.S., most of the GLP-1 U.S.S.S.tients in the study would have been taking first-generation medicines, such as Novo’s Victoza, said Lindsey Wang, a rising second-year student in the BS-MD program at Case Western Reserve University, who did the data analysis.
Still, the study is the latest evidence to suggest that widely popular diabetes and weight-loss shots may have a role in cancer prevention. Additional studies, including ones that assign people randomly to take GLP-1 drugs or other treatments, will be needed to establish whether the drugs can effectively prevent certain types of cancer.
“Obesity is the tobacco of our age when it comes to cancer risk,” said Arif Kamal, chief patient officer of the American Cancer Society. Kamal said the early evidence on GLP-1s is “compelling.”
The drugs have been used for almost two decades, but the newer, more powerful versions have caused the market to balloon. With millions of people taking them, scientists are beginning to discover new potential uses “- and some surprising side effects. The drugs have set off a gold rush for Big Pharma, with analysts at Goldman Sachs estimating the obesity market alone could reach $130 billion by the end of the decade.
Cancer links
Excess body fat is known to increase the risk of developing 13 specific types of cancer, making up 40% of all cancer diagnoU.S.U.S.U.S. the US, according to tU.S.U.S.U.S.ters for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the JAMA study, patients who were prescribed GLP-1s were almost 50% less likely to develop colon cancer than patients who were treated with insulin alone. GLP-1s were also associated with a lower risk of developing other tumors of the digestive system, including esophageal cancer, gallbladder cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
“This is very significant because usually when you get these cancers, you have a poor prognosis,” said Wang. She conducted the research under the guidance of Case Western Professor Nathan Berger, who died last month at the age of 83.
In one finding that Wang said surprised researchers, the drugs did not appear to reduce the risk of post-menopausal breast cancer. There was also no impact on thyroid cancer. Patients who took GLP-1s were more likely to develop kidney cancer than those who took metformin.
However, trying to track associations like these via electronic health records is “very problematic,” said Anne McTiernan, a professor of epidemiology at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, who wasn’t on the research team and reviewed the study results.
“Electronic health records do not accurately portray other health conditions beyond the condition for which billing is done,” she said in an e-mail, noting that the dataset in the study didn’t accurately portray the use of alcohol and also may have underreported the number of overweight patients in the study who had a family history of coloU.S.poU.S.ps.
And US drug labelsU.S.orU.S.otU.S.Ozempic and Wegovy carry a warning about thyroid tumors in rodents, saying it’s unknown whether the drugs cause the tumors in humans.
The European Medicines Agency studied the issue last year after independent research pointed to the potential of an increased risk of thyroid cancers when people with Type 2 diabetes use the medicines but found no evidence to support a causal association. Other studies have reached similar conclusions.
Ozempic linked to rare cases of vision loss in Harvard study
Patients who took the drugs were more than seven times more likely to be diagnosed with NAION
STOCK Ozempic
The incredible popularity of Novo and rival Eli Lilly & Co.’s weight-loss drugs has caused shortages that both companies have worked to rectify.
Image Credit: Reuters
Novo Nordisk A/S’ best-selling diabetes and weight-loss drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy, appear to be associated with a higher risk of a rare form of vision loss, according to an analysis by doctors at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, a Harvard-affiliated hospital.
Patients who took the drugs for weight loss were more than seven times more likely to be diagnosed with a stroke-like eye condition, known as NAION, than those taking other classes of drugs for obesity, according to the study of patient records. Those taking medications for diabetes were more than four times more likely to develop the rare ailment than people on other types of treatments, according to the results published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology.
The relatively small study examined the records of Massachusetts Eye and Ear patients. According to the paper, the low number of cases of the eye condition in people who took the drugs—37 between both groups—limited the study’s statistical power. The findings don’t prove the medications caused the eye complication and must be replicated in more extensive studies involving more hospitals, the Harvard researchers and other experts said.
“I don’t think this is a strong enough signal to take patients off the drug,” said Susan Mollan, a neuro-ophthalmologist in Birmingham, England, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. It didn’t show that the eye effect immediately followed taking the drugs, as some of the cases occurred months later. Still, doctors should tell patients about the potential risk, she said.
The incredible popularity of Novo and rival Eli Lilly & Co.’s weight-loss drugs has caused shortages that both companies have worked to rectify. Novo’s semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, has been studied for more than 15 years, and scientists essentially consider it safe. But as more people use the drugs, researchers are looking to see if any previously unknown side effects are emerging.
Novo’s American depositary receipts fell as much as 4.9 percent as of 11:48 a.m. in New York, while Lilly shares lost as much as 2 percent.
“Patient safety is a top priority for Novo Nordisk, and we take all reports about adverse events from the use of our medicines very seriously,” a Novo spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The spokesperson said Harvard study had some fundamental limitations,,, andd other extensive, real-world studies provide reassurance that the drugs are safe. NAION isn’t among the adverse reactions listed on the two drugs’ labels, they said.
Careful look
The Mass Eye and Ear analysis was designed to examine whether semaglutide is associated with an increased risk of NAION after doctors noticed a handful of cases and realized those patients were on the drug. The condition typically affects between one in 10,000 and one in 50,000 people annually, leading to permanent partial vision loss in the affected eye. There’s no standard treatment.
This potential risk “is something that definitely should be looked at more carefully,” said Mahyar Etminan, a drug safety researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who wasn’t involved in the study. “This is a severe condition, so if it were true, it would change the risk-benefit calculus.”
He added that this is particularly relevant for people taking Wegovy only for weight loss who don’t have other medical conditions that could benefit from treatment.
Hard to know
Etminan said there are other reasons to follow up on the study. Diabetes itself is a risk factor for the eye condition, he pointed out, so it’s unclear how Ozempic or Wegovy would cause it. The design of the study makes it hard to know whether it was the severity of their diabetes or heart disease rather than taking the drugs that raised patients’ risk, he said.
The study included 710 patients prescribed diabetes drugs and 979 prescribed weight-loss drugs treated at Mass Eye and Ear over six years starting in December 2017, when Ozempic was first approved. Within those two groups, the researchers compared the rates of NAION in people who had filled their first prescriptions for Ozempic or Wegovy to the rates of those on rival treatments. They didn’t look at Mounjaro and Zepbound, the diabetes and obesity treatments made by Lilly.
Joseph Rizzo, director of the neuro-ophthalmology service at Mass Eye and Ear and a Harvard Medical School professor, said the researchers started the study last summer after three people came into the clinic with NAION over a short period of time, all of whom were on liraglutide.
Now, his group is talking with other researchers about performing a much larger study involving other hospitals.
“I hope that doctors and patients are aware of this association,” he said, emphasizing that the study doesn’t prove a causal link between the drug and the eye disease. Patients need to know about the possible riskston make an informed decision before starting it.
‘Wake-up call’: third of adults not doing enough physical activity
A major study released on Wednesday highlights a concerning global trend: nearly a third of all adults are not engaging in sufficient physical activity, posing a significant threat to public health. According to the World Health Organization and collaborating researchers, more than 31 percent of adults—approximately 1.8 billion people—failed to meet recommended exercise levels in 2022. This marks a five-percentage-point increase from 2010.
“Physical inactivity is a silent threat to global health, significantly contributing to the rise in chronic diseases,” said Ruediger Krech, director of the WHO’s health promotion department, during an online press conference.
Current Recommendations and Future Projections
The WHO advises that adults engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week—such as walking, cycling, or performing household chores—or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, including running or competitive sports. A combination of both types of activity is also effective.
Krech noted that failing to meet these guidelines raises the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, and mental health issues. If current trends persist, the proportion of inactive adults could rise to 35 percent by 2030, according to the study published in The Lancet Global Health. This figure falls short of the WHO’s goal to reduce physical inactivity by 15 percent by the decade’s end.
The head of the WHO’s physical activity unit, Fiona Bull, called the findings “a wake-up call that we’re not doing enough.”
Gender Disparities and Lifestyle Factors
The study also revealed a gender gap in physical activity levels, with nearly 34 percent of women not meeting the activity threshold compared to 29 percent of men. Factors contributing to declining activity rates include increased screen time, sedentary work environments, and reduced walking.
During a period filled with major sporting events like the Olympics and football championships, Krech reminded the public, “Watching sports does not equal being physically active.” He encouraged people to “get up and be active—every step counts.”
Recommendations for Improvement
The WHO emphasized that changing individual behavior alone is insufficient. Countries must promote physical activity through enhanced community sports programs and improved walking, cycling, and public transport infrastructure.
The study, described as the most comprehensive on the topic, analyzed data from over 500 studies involving 5.7 million people across 163 countries and territories. Despite the alarming trends, there is some positive news: nearly half of the countries have made progress over the past decade, and 22 are on track to meet the 2030 target, provided they continue their efforts.
Fake Ozempic is circulating in Europe and the Americas, WHO warns
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned about counterfeit batches of Novo Nordisk A/S’s popular diabetes medication, Ozempic, also used for weight loss. The fake products were identifiedU.K.n BrU.K.ilU.K.nd the UK in OctoU.K.r the U.S.eviousU.S.ear,U.S.nd the US in U.S.cemberU.S.This is the first official warning from the WHO despite monitoring reports of counterfeit semaglutide—Ozempic’s generic name—since 2022.
The counterfeit drugs pose significant health risks as they may not contain the correct ingredients and, in some cases, could include potentially harmful substances like insulin. Ozempic, a diabetes treatment, is also marketed under the brand name Wegovy for obesity.
The surge in demand for these medications has led to an expansion of the graU.S. marketU.SIn the US, compoundU.S.g pharmaU.S.es are permitted to produce and sell similar versions of these drugs due to shortU.S.es, but NoU.S. NordiskU.S.nd its US competitor Eli LillU.S.& Co. have raised concerns about the integrity of these compounded medicines. Eli Lilly recently reported that some compounded versions contained chemicals different from those approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The WHO advises patients to avoid purchasing medications from unfamiliar or unverified sources, particularly those found online.
Pfizer’s Paxlovid fails as a 15-day treatment for long COVID, study finds
A 15-day course of Pfizer’s antiviral medication Paxlovid did not alleviate symptoms of long COVID, according to a study conducted by Stanford University researchers.
CuExistnoroven treatments exist for long-term COVID-19, a condition wwhereptoms persist for months following the initial coronavirus infection. Initial optimism that Paxlovid, an oral two-drug treatment, might help was based on anecdotal reports suggesting some patients experienced symptom relief.
However, a 15-week study involving 155 participants found no significant difference between Paxlovid and placebo in reducing fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, body aches, or gastrointestinal and cardiovascular symptoms. On average, participants had been suffering from long COVID symptoms for over 16 months before joining the trial.
“We did not observe a measurable difference in the composite symptoms, nor did we see benefits for individual symptoms,” said Stanford Medicine Professor Dr. Upinder Singh. She noted that further research could still be valuable, potentially exploring longer treatment durations or targeting patients with shorter durations of illness.
The study confirmed that Paxlovid, typically prescribed as a 5-day course for early COVID-19 treatment, is safe for 15 days.
Pfizer stated that these results will not affect its other planned studies investigating Paxlovid as a treatment for long-term COVID-19.
Paxlovid remains the most commonly prescribed at-U.S. treatmentU.S. COVID-1U.S..S.e U.S. It U.S.pproved foU.S.e in adults at risk of severe complications from the virus. In Pfizer’s original clinical trial, Paxlovid was shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 by approximately 90% in unvaccinated individuals at high risk for severe disease. However, it did not demonstrate benefits for those at standard risk, including vaccinated patients.
Pfizer funded the long COVID trial, involving scientists from Kaiser Permanente North California and Pfizer and Stanford researchers.
Pharma firm urged to share new ‘game-changer’ HIV drug
On Thursday, over 300 politicians, health experts, US celebritiesU.S.ssued a caU.S.. for US pharmU.S.eutical gianU.S.Gilead to permit the production of affordable generic version of Lenacapavir, a promising new HIV drug. The appeal aims to ensure that this potentially transformative treatment reaches people in developing countries most affected by HIV.
Lenacapavir, which received approval for use in the United States and the European Union in 2022, requires only two injections per year, making it particularly advantageous for individuals typically underserved by high-quality healthcare, according to an open letter addressed to Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day.
The letter, signed by former world leaders, AIDS organizations, activists, actors, and other prominent figures, describes Lenacapavir as a “real game-changer” in the fight against HIV. It urges Gilead to make the drug accessible in the Global South on par with its availability in the Global North.
Signatories are advocating for Gilead to license Lenacapavir to the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool, which would facilitate the production of cheaper generic versions.
According to the World Health Organization, Africa accounted for two-thirds of the 39 million people living with HIV in 2022 and 380,000 of the 630,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide that year.
The letter highlights a past “horror and shame” that it took a decade and 12 million lives before generic versions of the first antiretroviral drugs became available globally. It emphasizes that this innovation could significantly impact the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, provided it is accessible to all who need it.
Lenacapavir’s biannual dosing could be especially beneficial for individuals facing stigma around HIV treatment, the letter notes.
Among the signatories are former heads of state such as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Joyce Banda of Malawi, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, and actors including Gillian Anderson, Stephen Fry, Sharon Stone, and Alan Cumming. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, the French scientist who co-discovered HIV, also signed the letter, emphasizing that inequality, rather than science, is the most significant barrier to combating AIDS.
Barre-Sinoussi urged Gilead to address this inequality and take a significant step towards ending the AIDS pandemic. According to the European Medicines Agency, lenacapavir, marketed as Sunlenca, has effectively reduced viral load in patients with infections resistant to other treatments.
Frequently Asked Question
What are ‘outliers’ in cancer research?
In cancer research, ‘outliers’ refer to patients who survive much longer than expected despite having a highly aggressive or advanced stage of cancer. These individuals, who do not fit the typical survival patterns, are of great interest because they may hold clues to new treatments or understandings of cancer.
4 Why is the study of cancer ‘outliers’ important?
Studying cancer outliers is essential because it can explain why specific individuals defy the odds and survive longer than expected. Understanding these cases may reveal unique biological factors, genetic mutations, or immune responses that could lead to new, more effective treatments for the general population.
What factors are being investigated in cancer outliers?
Researchers are investigating various factors, including genetic mutations, immune system responses, and tumor characteristics. They also look at lifestyle factors, treatment regimens, and the presence of specific biomarkers that might contribute to the outlier’s survival.
How do researchers identify cancer outliers?
Cancer outliers are often identified through extensive clinical data and survival statistics. Researchers and oncologists look for patients who have survived much longer than the average survival time for their specific type and stage of cancer. Advanced data analysis and longitudinal studies help identify these exceptional cases.
What methods are used to study cancer outliers?
Researchers use various methods to study cancer outliers, including genetic sequencing, immunological assays, and detailed patient histories. Advanced technologies such as whole-genome sequencing and high-throughput screening are often employed to uncover unique biological features of these individuals.
Conclusion
The search to understand why specific individuals—known as cancer ‘outliers’—survive the deadliest cancers offers a promising avenue for advancing cancer research and treatment. These patients, who defy the expected outcomes of their aggressive or advanced cancer types, provide valuable insights into potential new approaches for combating the disease. By investigating factors such as unique genetic mutations, immune system responses, and specific tumor characteristics, researchers hope to uncover the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the outliers’ prolonged survival.
