social determinants of health
Drugmakers and the FDA are failing Americans who want to stop smoking
Eros Dervishi for STAT
Around 15 million Americans tried to quit smoking in 2022 — most of them failed. Every year in the U.S., seven times as many people make the attempt than are diagnosed with any cancer. Yet there hasn't been a new class of drug approved for smoking cessation in almost 20 years.
For the most part, pharma companies would rather focus on making drugs for cancers. Experts say that the FDA's drug center also delayed approval of two potential new treatment options in the last five years alone.
"Maybe after I die, they will pick up some of those ideas," said Olivier George, a psychology professor who has done research on a nicotine-blocking enzyme. Read more in Nick Florko's last story for STAT.
health disparities
Early research: Black patients with aggressive breast cancer less likely to get immunotherapy
Black people who have triple-negative breast cancer (a particularly aggressive form that Black women are disproportionately affected by) received immunotherapy at significantly lower rates than white patients in a study of data from more than 10,000 patients. The results, presented at an American Association for Cancer Research conference on health disparities this week, showed that Black patients had an 11% lower rate of immunotherapy compared to white patients between 2017 and 2021. Socioeconomic factors like being enrolled in Medicare and receiving care at community programs as opposed to academic centers may have been a major influence, the researchers found.
More research is needed to get to the bottom of the disparities. And the stakes are high: Immunotherapy has quickly become a standard treatment for this type of cancer after entering the scene in 2019. In 2017, just 4.2% of patients with early-stage TNBC received immunotherapy. By 2021, that number jumped to 48%.
cancer
What if we tried to starve cancer to death?
More cancer news: Like you and me, cancer cells need to eat. But they aren't feasting on instant ramen or egg and cheese sandwiches — instead, they have a taste for glucose. Previous efforts to stop cancer cells from digesting the simple sugar, which helps them grow, have been ineffective. But in a study published Friday in Science Advances, researchers discovered that might be because when you take away one favorite food, cancer cells simply find others. In this case: glutamine and lactate.
In order to effectively starve cancer cells, at least two of these three nutrients must be blocked, the researchers found. STAT's Angus Chen spoke with two study authors about the potential for new therapeutics that could starve tumors. Read more.
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