Tag: Cancer

  • Health

    COVID-19 and cancer

    Study represents the most comprehensive scientific survey to date about the interrelationship between COVID-19 and cancer.

    6–9 minutes
    Test tubes.
  • Science & Tech

    Emily Balskus wins $1M Waterman Award

    Emily Balskus has won the Alan T. Waterman Award, the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious prize for scientists under 40 in the United States.

    4–5 minutes
    Emily Balskus
  • Health

    A new test method

    A novel liquid biopsy method can detect kidney cancers with high accuracy, including small, localized tumors which are often curable but for which no early detection method exists.

    3–4 minutes
    test tubes.
  • Health

    Stroke, heart-attack cases plummet during pandemic

    A Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study showed dramatic drops in hospital visits for heart attacks and stroke, which likely led to uncounted deaths at home during the COVID crisis. Perhaps more troubling is the potential for long-term damage to decades’ work to catch conditions in their earliest, most treatable stages.

    8–12 minutes
    Emergency Sign.
  • Health

    Mapping the cancer connection

    A new study takes the most comprehensive look to date at the connection between the ancestry and the molecular makeup of cancer.

    4–6 minutes
    Illustration of cancer cells.
  • Science & Tech

    Scientists map human protein interactions

    Scientists produce a reference map of human protein interactions, releasing data helpful for understanding diseases including cancer and infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

    4–6 minutes
    Tissue-specific subnetworks.
  • Health

    New blood test can detect wide range of cancers

    In a study involving thousands of participants, a new blood test detected more than 50 types of cancer as well as their location within the body with a high degree of accuracy.

    3–4 minutes
    Petri dish in a lab.
  • Science & Tech

    Capabilities of CRISPR gene editing expanded

    Investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital have modified the gene editing system, making it possible to potentially target any location across the entire human genome.

    2–3 minutes
    DNA strands.
  • Health

    Drop in cancer deaths lifts U.S. life expectancy

    A decline in cancer mortality was a prominent feature of recent good news about U.S. life expectancy. The Gazette spoke with the director of the Chan School’s Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention to understand why.

    9–13 minutes
    Timothy Rebbeck, who heads up Chan School's Center for Global Cancer Prevention.
  • Science & Tech

    The ‘right’ diet

    Professor Emily Balskus and her team have identified an entirely new class of enzymes that degrade chemicals essential for neurological health, but also help digest foods like nuts, berries, and tea, releasing nutrients that may impact human health.

    3–5 minutes
    Spoon with pomogranate seeds.
  • Health

    A solid vaccine for liquid tumors

    A new study presents an alternative treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that has the potential to eliminate AML cells completely.

    6–9 minutes
    Petri dish with cells.
  • Science & Tech

    A better candidate for chemo delivery

    A new technique called ELeCt (erythrocyte-leveraged chemotherapy) can transport drug-loaded nanoparticles into cancerous lung tissue by mounting them on the body’s own red blood cells.

    4–7 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Lab success, life goals

    Dalton Brunson’s biology studies have led him to labs, research, and successes that he hopes keep him ever mindful of his commitment to expanding health care in rural areas.

    3–4 minutes
    Dalton Brunson in an office
  • Health

    As the end nears, who’s in control?

    Advocates and opponents of medical-aid-in-dying laws, also called physician-assisted death, gathered at Harvard Medical School for a two-day conference organized by the HMS Center for Bioethics.

    5–7 minutes
    Dan Diaz discusses medical aid in dying with Mildred Solomon.
  • Health

    Vitamin D may slow progression of metastatic colorectal cancer

    The first randomized clinical trial of vitamin D in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer found that high doses of supplements combined with chemotherapy delayed disease progression.

    4–5 minutes
  • Health

    Longevity and anti-aging research: ‘Prime time for an impact on the globe’

    Research into extending humanity’s healthy lifespan has been progressing rapidly in recent years. In February, a group of aging and longevity scientists founded a nonprofit to foster the work and serve as a resource for governments and businesses looking to understand the potentially far-reaching implications of a population that lives significantly longer, healthier lives.

    10–15 minutes
    David Sinclair
  • Health

    Interaction between immune factors can trigger cancer

    Harvard researchers found that interaction between immune factors triggers cancer-promoting chronic inflammation, setting the stage for the development of skin cancer associated with chronic dermatitis and colorectal cancer in patients with colitis.

    3–4 minutes
    Cancer cells in mouse
  • Science & Tech

    Microbial manufacturing

    Emily Balskus and a team of researchers untangled how soil bacteria are able to manufacture streptozotocin, an antibiotic and anti-cancer compound.

    3–4 minutes
    Emily Balskus standing in her office
  • Health

    A gathering to battle cancer

    Amid projections that global cancer rates will skyrocket, researchers from around the country gathered at Harvard Monday to share their latest findings and to launch a center whose aim is to boost cancer early detection and prevention.

    5–7 minutes
  • Health

    Study signals a limit to cancer’s complexity

    New findings on cancer driver mutations creates hope for targeted therapy. “It appears there is a limit to cancer’s complexity,” says one of the study’s researchers, Martin Nowak of Harvard University.

    3–4 minutes
    Martin Nowak.
  • Campus & Community

    Undergrad and Radcliffe fellow bond over bones

    Faced with a failed bone graft, undergrad Linh Nam ’20 connects with a Radcliffe Fellow whose work could revolutionize the science of bone replacement.

    3–4 minutes
    Linh Nam and Hala Zreiqat.
  • Health

    Hitchhiking his way to better drug delivery

    Researchers set out to develop a system that could help prevent nanoparticles from being cleared from the blood before they get to their target tissues. Called the “hitchhiking method,” and it’s found to work in human lungs, where a full 41 percent of the nanoparticles introduced into blood were deposited into the lung.

    6–9 minutes
  • Health

    Flight attendants have higher rates of breast, uterine, other cancers

    U.S. flight attendants have a higher prevalence of several forms of cancer, including breast, uterine, and cervical, when compared with the general public, according to research from the Harvard Chan School.

    2–3 minutes
    airplane
  • Health

    Survey of oncologists finds knowledge gap on medical marijuana

    Harvard psychiatrist Ilana Braun found a knowledge gap on medical marijuana in a survey of oncologists nationwide.

    4–6 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Before cancer kills, it cheats

    Evolutionary biologist Athena Aktipis of Arizona State University delivered a lecture titled “Why Cancer is Everywhere” at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

    3–5 minutes
  • Health

    Gains in cancer treatment through eyes of a survivor

    A Harvard-sponsored HUBweek panel discussed recent developments in cancer treatment, including advances in immuno-oncology.

    3–5 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Moments of joy beyond cancer’s shadow

    Harvard’s first year as a chapter of Camp Kesem, a summer camp for children whose parents have battled cancer, unfolded last month in the green hills of Western Massachusetts.

    4–5 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Paying the price of surviving childhood cancer

    Study finds out-of-pocket health care costs can lead to financial problems for survivors of childhood cancer.

    3–5 minutes
  • Health

    Cancer alarm at the firehouse

    Harvard researchers have teamed with local departments to examine cancer hazards contained in firehouse life.

    5–7 minutes
  • Health

    First draft of a genome-wide cancer ‘dependency map’

    Researchers have identified more than 760 genes upon which cancer cells of multiple types are strongly dependent for their growth and survival. 

    4–6 minutes