in the lab
U.K.'s 100,000 genome project zeroes in on cancer
Adobe
When the U.K.'s 100,000 Genomes Project launched 10 years ago, its mission wasn't just to sequence that many people's genomes to see how they influenced health. It also set out to understand the genomes of some volunteers' tumors. The fruits of that research appear today in Nature Medicine, based on work analyzing 13,800 solid tumors in adults. Some tumors were more likely to carry mutations, a discovery that is already helping direct treatment choices for the patient and in some cases indicating potential risks for the patient's family.
It's now standard practice for patients in the National Health Service with those tumors — including certain brain cancers, sarcomas, and ovarian cancers — to have their tumors sequenced. "Mostly they got into clinical trials, some of them got medicines they wouldn't have got, others avoided medicines because their genetic makeup suggested that if they were exposed to the medicines, they would be at risk of harm," study co-author Mark Caulfield of Queen Mary University of London said. STAT's Andrew Joseph has more.
mental health
Doctors who revised the latest psychiatric bible pocketed $14 million from drug makers
It's officially known as the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but in shorthand, it's the bible of psychiatry. A new BMJ study calls into question, not for the first time, the editorial independence of the physicians charged with the DSM's 2022 revision. Combing through the U.S. government's OpenPayments database, where drug and device makers must report payments made to doctors, the study's authors found that 60% of the 92 U.S. physicians who served as panel and task force members received industry payments totaling more than $14 million.
Previous research has linked financial conflicts of interest to pro-industry habits of thought, study co-author Lisa Cosgrove of the University of Massachusetts in Boston told STAT's Ed Silverman. "In the case of the DSM, this leads to the medicalization of emotional distress, over-diagnosis and over treatment, and the search for magic bullets." The APA's response: "No content was found in the submitted text that related to a specific treatment for which industry funding may have been provided for related research." Read more.
health
Transportation as a health indicator
Reliable access to transportation can make a difference in getting health care, especially for people who are older, have lower income, and don't have insurance, a new CDC report points out. In 2022, 5.7% of U.S. adults didn't have reliable transportation for daily living, with women (6.1%) more likely than men (5.3%) to lack it. There were differences by race and ethnicity:
CDC
And by geography:
CDC
This is the first time a question about transportation to be included in the National Health Interview Survey, so the agency plans to monitor how it affects health outcomes and health care use.
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