Publisher Health

Bereaved families are calling for a public inquiry into what they say are “repeated failures” by the UK government to protect vulnerable people from a website promoting suicide.A report by the Molly Rose Foundation says departments were warned 65 times about the online forum, which BBC News is not naming, and others like it but did not act.The suicide prevention charity says at least 133 people have died in the UK as a result of a toxic chemical promoted by the site and similar forums.The government has not said whether it will consider an inquiry but said sites must prevent users from accessing illegal suicide and self-harm content or face “robust enforcement, including substantial fines”.Families and survivors have written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer asking him for an inquiry to look into why warnings from coroners and campaigners have been ignored.David Parfett, whose son Tom took his own life in 2021, told the BBC successive governments had offered sympathy but no accountability.”The people who host the suicide platforms to spread their cult-like messages that suicide is normal – and earn money from selling death – continue to be several steps ahead of government ministers and law enforcement bodies,” he said.”I can think of no better memorial for my son than knowing people like him are protected from harm while they recover their mental health.”David and six other families are being represented by the law firm Leigh Day who have also written a letter to the prime minister highlighting their concerns about the main suicide forum.The letter says victims were groomed online, and tended to be in their early 20s, with the youngest known victim being 13.It argues a public inquiry is needed because coroners’ courts cannot institute the changes needed to protect vulnerable people.According to the report, coroners raised concerns and sent repeated warnings to the Home Office, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and Department of Health and Social Care on dozens of occasions since 2019, when the forum that has been criticised by the families first emerged.The report highlighted four main findings: The Home Office’s refusal to tighten regulation of the substance, which remains easily obtainable online, while UK Border Force “struggles to respond to imports” from overseas sellersThe media regulator Ofcom’s decision to rely on “voluntary measures” from the main forum’s operators rather than taking steps to restrict UK accessRepeated failures by government departments to act on coroners’ warningsOperational shortcomings, including inconsistent police welfare checks and delays in making antidotes available to emergency servicesA government spokesperson said that the substance in question “is closely monitored and is reportable under the Poisons Act” meaning retailers should tell the authorities if they suspect it is being bought to cause harm. But campaigners say the government’s response has been fragmented and slow, with officials “passing the parcel” rather than taking co-ordinated action.Adele Zeynep Walton, whose sister Aimee died in 2022, said families like hers had been “ignored and dismissed”.”She was creative, a very talented artist, gifted musician,” she told BBC News.”Aimee was hardworking and achieved great GCSE results, however she was shy and quiet and struggled to make friends.”Every time I learn of a new life lost to the website that killed my sister three years ago, I’m infuriated that another family has had to go through this preventable tragedy.”The demand for an inquiry follows concerns raised by the BBC in 2023, when an investigation revealed sites offering instructions and encouragement for suicide and evading regulations.Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, said the state’s failure to act had “cost countless lives”.He also accused Ofcom of being “inexplicably slow” to restrict UK access to the main website the Foundation has raised concerns about.Under the Online Safety Act, which became law in October 2023, Ofcom got the power in March 2025 to take action against sites hosting illegal content, which includes assisting suicide. If sites fail to show they have systems in place to remove illegal material, Ofcom can block them or impose fines of up to £18m.UK users are currently unable to access the forum, which is based in the US. A message on the forum’s homepage says it was not blocked to people in the UK as a result of government action but instead because of a “proactive” decision to “protect the platform and its users”.”We operate under the protection of the First Amendment. However, UK authorities have signalled intentions to enforce their domestic laws on foreign platforms, potentially leading to criminal liability or service disruption,” the message reads.In a statement, Ofcom said: “In response to our enforcement action, the online suicide forum put in place a geo-block to restrict access by people with UK IP addresses.”Services that choose to block access by people in the UK must not encourage or promote ways to avoid these restrictions.”It added the forum remained on its watchlist and a previously-launched investigation into it remained open while it checked the block was being maintained.If you, or someone you know, has been affected by mental health issues BBC Action Line has put together a list of organisations which can help.

More older adults have turned to cochlear implants after Medicare expanded eligibility for the devices.Kitty Grutzmacher had contended with poor hearing for a decade, but the problem had worsened over the past year. Even with her hearing aids, “there was little or no sound,” she said.“I was avoiding going out in groups. I stopped playing cards, stopped going to Bible study, even going to church.”Her audiologist was unable to offer Ms. Grutzmacher, a retired nurse in Elgin, Ill., a solution. But she found her way to the cochlear implant program at Northwestern Medicine.There, Krystine Mullins, an audiologist who assesses patients’ hearing and counsels them about their options, explained that surgically implanting this electronic device usually substantially improved a patient’s ability to understand speech.“I had never even thought about it,” Ms. Grutzmacher said.That she was 84 was, in itself, immaterial. “As long as you’re healthy enough to undergo surgery, age is not a concern,” Dr. Mullins said. One recent Northwestern implant patient had been 99.Some patients need to ponder this decision, given that after the operation, clearer hearing still requires months of practice and adaptation, and the degree of improvement is hard to predict. “You can’t try it out in advance,” Dr. Mullins said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Men whose prostate cancer returns after surgery or radiation therapy may soon benefit from a powerful new treatment that has been shown in clinical trials to reduce the risk of death by more than 40%.
Researchers tested a therapy that combines enzalutamide, an existing cancer drug, with standard hormone therapy. This approach significantly lowered death rates among men whose prostate cancer came back after initial treatment and who had few remaining options. The study findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress (ESMO) on Oct. 19 in Berlin.
“After initial treatment, some patients see their prostate cancer come back in an aggressive way and are at risk for their disease to spread quickly,” said Stephen Freedland, MD, director of the Center for Integrated Research in Cancer and Lifestyle at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and co-principal investigator of the study. “Hormone therapy, which is what we’ve been offering patients for 30 years, has not improved survival and neither has anything else. That makes these findings a real game changer.”
The international clinical trial followed more than 1,000 men from 244 medical centers across 17 countries. All participants had high-risk biochemically recurrent prostate cancer, a condition where prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels rise rapidly after surgery or radiation. PSA is a protein used to monitor prostate cancer activity, and a sharp increase after treatment often signals that the disease is likely to return and spread, often to the bones or spine.
“We know these patients are at high risk of developing metastatic disease and dying of their cancer unless we offer a meaningful treatment option,” said Freedland, professor of Urology and the Warschaw, Robertson, Law Families Chair in Prostate Cancer.
Participants were randomly assigned to receive either hormone therapy alone, enzalutamide alone, or both together. After eight years of follow-up, those who received the combination therapy had a 40.3% lower risk of death compared to those in the other two groups, according to Freedland.
“This clinical trial, one of many that Cedars-Sinai Cancer has offered to its patients, is an example of the translational work being done by our physician-scientists,” said Robert Figlin, MD, interim director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer. “The result will be improved treatment and better outcomes for patients everywhere.”
Freedland added that enzalutamide is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration and included in National Comprehensive Cancer Network treatment guidelines based on earlier research by the same team. He said these new results will likely strengthen those recommendations and help establish the enzalutamide and hormone therapy combination as the new standard of care for patients with high-risk biochemically recurrent prostate cancer.

“These important findings identify a treatment that prolongs survival in men with aggressive prostate cancer,” said Hyung Kim, MD, a urologic oncologist and chair of the Department of Urology at Cedars-Sinai. “The latest analysis complements previous studies that found enzalutamide significantly improved survival in other prostate cancer settings, and will change how we take care of our patients.”
Funding: The study was sponsored by Pfizer Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc., the co-developers of enzalutamide.
Disclosures: Stephen J. Freedland reports being a consultant to Astellas Pharma Inc., AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (formerly Janssen), Merck, Novartis, Pfizer Inc., Sanofi, Sumitomo Pharma America, Inc. (formerly Myovant Sciences, Inc.), and Tolmar.

People with advanced lung or skin cancer who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of beginning immunotherapy lived considerably longer than those who did not, according to new research.
Scientists from the University of Florida and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center describe this as a milestone in more than a decade of work developing mRNA-based treatments that activate the body’s immune defenses against cancer. Building on an earlier UF study, the results represent an important step toward creating a universal cancer vaccine capable of enhancing the effects of immunotherapy.
The analysis, which examined medical records from over 1,000 MD Anderson patients, is still preliminary. However, if upcoming randomized clinical trials confirm these results, the impact on cancer care could be profound.
“The implications are extraordinary — this could revolutionize the entire field of oncologic care,” said senior researcher Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., a UF Health pediatric oncologist and the Stop Children’s Cancer/Bonnie R. Freeman Professor for Pediatric Oncology Research. “We could design an even better nonspecific vaccine to mobilize and reset the immune response, in a way that could essentially be a universal, off-the-shelf cancer vaccine for all cancer patients.”
Jeff Coller, Ph.D., a leading mRNA expert at Johns Hopkins University, noted that the findings highlight yet another way Operation Warp Speed (the U.S. government’s rapid COVID-19 vaccine initiative) continues to benefit lives in “unique and unexpected ways.”
“The results from this study demonstrate how powerful mRNA medicines truly are and that they are revolutionizing our treatment of cancer,” Coller said.
Presented today (October 19) at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin, the study builds on eight years of Sayour’s research combining lipid nanoparticles with mRNA. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, is present in every cell and carries the instructions for making proteins.

In July, Sayour’s laboratory made an unexpected discovery: to trigger a strong immune attack on cancer, it was not necessary to target a specific tumor protein. Instead, they could simply stimulate the immune system to respond as if it were fighting a viral infection.
By pairing their experimental “nonspecific” mRNA vaccine with immune checkpoint inhibitors — common cancer drugs that help the immune system recognize and destroy tumors — the researchers observed a powerful antitumor response in mice. This experimental vaccine was not specific to COVID or any other virus or cancer but used similar technology to COVID-19 vaccines.
That breakthrough inspired former UF researcher and current MD Anderson scientist Adam Grippin, M.D., Ph.D., to ask a key question: Could the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine have a similar immune-boosting effect in cancer patients?
To explore that idea, the team analyzed data from patients with Stage 3 and 4 non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic melanoma treated at MD Anderson between 2019 and 2023.
Their findings showed that patients who received a COVID mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy survived significantly longer than those who did not.
According to Sayour, the most striking improvements occurred in patients who, based on tumor biology and other factors, were not expected to respond strongly to immunotherapy.

Although these results are from an observational study and require confirmation through a randomized clinical trial, researchers emphasize their potential importance.
Despite the need for further validation, Sayour described the discovery as pivotal for the future of cancer treatment.
“Although not yet proven to be causal, this is the type of treatment benefit that we strive for and hope to see with therapeutic interventions — but rarely do,” said Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., Grippin’s doctoral mentor and director of the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute. “I think the urgency and importance of doing the confirmatory work can’t be overstated.”
In lung and skin cancers, doctors commonly engage the immune system with drugs designed to “release the brakes” and recognize and attack cancer cells more effectively. In advanced disease stages, however, most patients don’t respond well and often have exhausted other treatment options like radiation, surgery and chemotherapy.
The new study involved records of 180 advanced lung cancer patients who received a COVID vaccine within a 100-day period before or after starting immunotherapy drugs and 704 treated with the same drugs who did not receive the vaccine. Getting the vaccine was associated with a near doubling of median survival, from 20.6 months to 37.3 months.
Of the metastatic melanoma patients, 43 received a vaccine within 100 days of initiating immunotherapy, while 167 patients did not receive a vaccine. With the vaccine, median survival increased from 26.7 months to a range of 30 to 40 months; at the time the data were collected, some patients were still alive, meaning the vaccine effect could be even stronger.
Receiving non-mRNA pneumonia or flu vaccines resulted in no changes in longevity.
To back their findings, UF researchers then used mouse models to pair immunotherapy drugs with an mRNA vaccine targeted specifically at COVID spike protein. Those experiments showed they could turn unresponsive cancers into responsive ones, thwarting tumor growth.
“One of the mechanisms for how this works is when you give an mRNA vaccine, that acts as a flare that starts moving all of these immune cells from bad areas like the tumor to good areas like the lymph nodes,” Sayour said.
The next step is to launch a large clinical trial through the UF-led OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Network, a consortium of hospitals, health centers and clinics in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, California and Minnesota.
“One of our key motivations at OneFlorida is to move discoveries from academic settings out into the real world and the places where patients get care,” said Betsy Shenkman, Ph.D., who leads the consortium.
If confirmed, the new findings unlock numerous possibilities, and the researchers said an even better nonspecific universal vaccine could be designed. For patients with advanced cancers, the increased survival from such a universal vaccine could provide a priceless benefit: more time.
“If this can double what we’re achieving currently, or even incrementally — 5%, 10% — that means a lot to those patients, especially if this can be leveraged across different cancers for different patients,” said Sayour, an investigator with UF’s McKnight Brain Institute.
The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and multiple foundations.
Sayour, Grippin and Mitchell hold patents related to UF-developed mRNA vaccines that are licensed by iOncologi Inc., a biotech company born as a “spinout” from UF in which Mitchell holds interest.

Laser technology plays a vital role in modern life, supporting everything from precise scientific measurements to advanced communication systems. It underpins technologies such as self-driving vehicles, high-speed fiber optic networks, and even tools that detect gases in the atmosphere.
A research team led by Associate Professor Johann Riemensberger from the Department of Electronic Systems at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has developed a new kind of laser designed to overcome several challenges found in existing models.
“Our results can give us a new type of laser that is both fast, relatively cheap, powerful and easy to use,” says Riemensberger.
The team’s findings have been published in Nature Photonics. The project is a collaboration between NTNU, the Swiss École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and Luxtelligence SA.
Self-driving cars and air quality detectors
Traditional precision lasers are often bulky, costly, and tricky to fine-tune.
“Our new laser solves several of these problems,” says Riemensberger.

This improvement could make the technology especially useful in self-driving cars, which rely on a technique known as Lidar to map their surroundings. Lidar works by measuring how long it takes light from a laser to bounce back, or by detecting tiny changes in the light’s wave phase. The new laser can perform such measurements with remarkable accuracy — within about four centimeters.
The researchers also demonstrated that their laser can effectively detect hydrogen cyanide gas in the air, a substance commonly referred to as “hydrocyanic acid.” Because this compound is extremely toxic even in small amounts, being able to identify it quickly is essential for safety and environmental monitoring.
Advanced materials, microsized light circuits
The researchers created the new laser with advanced materials and microscopic light circuits.
The laser emits a powerful and stable beam of light. Also, among the advantages is that users can easily adjust the frequency quickly and smoothly, without sudden jumps.
“You can also easily control it with just one control instead of many,” Riemensberger points out.
The laser is built using chip technology that is already available. This makes it possible to mass-produce it cheaply.
“Our findings make it possible to create small, inexpensive and user-friendly measuring instruments and communication tools with high performance,” Riemensberger said.
The work was a collaboration between EPFL (experiments), Luxtelligence SA (chip production) and NTNU (design and simulations). It started when Riemensberger was still a postdoctoral fellow at EPFL. The collaboration continues through an EIC Pathfinder OPEN scholarship called ELLIPTIC.

SuperAgers are people over 80 whose memory performs as well as someone 30 years younger, showing that exceptional cognitive health can last a lifetime. They tend to be highly social, maintaining strong relationships and active lifestyles, and their brains appear to resist the buildup of Alzheimer’s-related plaques and tangles that often cause memory loss. Ongoing research is revealing powerful insights that could help scientists develop new ways to delay or even prevent dementia linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal degeneration.For the past 25 years, researchers at Northwestern Medicine have been examining people aged 80 and older, known as “SuperAgers,” to uncover why their minds stay so sharp.These remarkable individuals perform on memory tests as well as people 30 years younger, challenging the long-held idea that mental decline is an unavoidable part of getting older.
Throughout the decades of research, scientists have noticed that SuperAgers often share certain lifestyle and personality traits, such as being highly social and outgoing. However, according to Dr. Sandra Weintraub, professor of psychiatry, behavioral sciences, and neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the most astonishing discoveries have come from looking directly at their brains. “It’s really what we’ve found in their brains that’s been so earth-shattering for us,” she said.
By pinpointing the biological and behavioral features linked to SuperAging, the researchers aim to develop new ways to strengthen cognitive resilience and slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
“Our findings show that exceptional memory in old age is not only possible but is linked to a distinct neurobiological profile. This opens the door to new interventions aimed at preserving brain health well into the later decades of life,” said Weintraub, corresponding author of a new paper summarizing the findings.
The paper was published as a perspective article in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, published in a special issue marking both the 40th anniversary of the National Institute on Aging’s Alzheimer’s Disease Centers Program and the 25th anniversary of the National Alzheimer Coordinating Center.

SuperAger brains are resilient, resistant
The term “SuperAger” was first introduced by Dr. M. Marsel Mesulam, founder of the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease at Northwestern, in the late 1990s.
Since 2000, 290 SuperAgers have participated in the study, and researchers have examined 77 donated SuperAger brains after death. Some of these brains contained amyloid and tau proteins (also known as plaques and tangles), which are key hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, while others showed no buildup at all.
“What we realized is there are two mechanisms that lead someone to become a SuperAger,” Weintraub said. “One is resistance: they don’t make the plaques and tangles. Two is resilience: they make them, but they don’t do anything to their brains.”
Other key findings: Exceptional memory performance: SuperAgers score at least 9 out of 15 on a delayed word recall test — on par with individuals in their 50s and 60s. Youthful brain structure: Unlike typically aging brains, SuperAgers show no significant thinning of their cortex — the outer layer of the brain — and even have a thicker anterior cingulate cortex than younger adults. This crucial region of the brain plays a significant role in integrating information related to decision-making, emotion and motivation. Unique cellular traits: SuperAgers have more von economo neurons, which are specialized cells linked to social behavior, and larger entorhinal neurons, which are critical for memory, than their typically aging peers. Sociability as a common trait: Despite having diverse lifestyles and varying approaches to exercise, SuperAgers tend to be highly social and report strong interpersonal relationships.’Brain donation can offer scientific immortality’
At the Mesulam Center, SuperAgers are evaluated annually and may choose to donate their brains for post-mortem evaluation by Northwestern scientists.
“Many of the findings from this paper stem from the examination of brain specimens of generous, dedicated SuperAgers who were followed for decades,” said co-author Dr. Tamar Gefen, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Feinberg, director of Feinberg’s Laboratory for Translational Neuropsychology and a neuropsychologist at the Mesulam Center. “I am constantly amazed by how brain donation can enable discovery long after death, offering a kind of scientific immortality.”
The perspective piece is titled, “The First 25 Years of the Northwestern SuperAging Program.” Other Northwestern authors include Dr. Mesulam and Changiz Geula, research professor of cell and developmental biology and neuroscience at Feinberg and a member of the Mesulam Center.

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute and Vividion Therapeutics have discovered chemical compounds that can precisely prevent the cancer-driving gene RAS from connecting with a key pathway responsible for tumor growth.
The potential treatment is now moving into its first human clinical trial. If proven safe and effective, it could become a way to treat a wide range of cancers while minimizing harm to healthy cells.
The RAS gene plays a central role in controlling how cells grow and divide, but mutations in this gene occur in roughly one in five cancers. When mutated, RAS becomes permanently active, continually sending signals that push cells to keep growing and multiplying.
Inside the cell, RAS sits on the membrane and acts as the starting signal in a chain of growth processes. Completely shutting down RAS or the enzymes it controls has proven difficult, because these same pathways are essential for normal cell function. One of the enzymes linked to RAS, called PI3K, also helps regulate blood sugar through insulin. Blocking PI3K entirely can lead to side effects such as hyperglycemia.
In their study, published on October 9 in Science, the team combined chemical screening with biological testing to identify compounds that stop RAS and PI3K from interacting, while leaving normal cell activity intact.
Researchers at Vividion Therapeutics pinpointed a set of small molecules that permanently attach to the surface of PI3K near the spot where RAS would normally bind. Using an assay created by the Crick researchers, they confirmed that these compounds successfully blocked the RAS-PI3K interaction but still allowed PI3K to perform its other roles, including those related to insulin signaling.
The Crick team and their collaborators at Vividion then tested one of the compounds in mice with RAS-mutated lung tumors. The treatment stopped tumor growth, and the researchers found no signs of elevated blood sugar levels.

Next, they tried combining the new compound with one or two additional drugs that target enzymes within the same pathway. Together, the treatments produced stronger and longer-lasting tumor suppression than any of the drugs used alone.
The scientists also tested the compound in mice with tumors carrying mutations in another cancer-linked gene, HER2, which is often overactive in breast cancer and also connects with PI3K. Tumor growth was again halted, even though the effect did not rely on RAS. This finding suggests that the new compound could potentially help stop the growth of a broader range of cancers.
The drug has now entered the first clinical trial in humans to test for safety and side effects in people with both RAS and HER2 mutations. The trial will also assess if the potential treatment is more effective in combination with other drugs targeting RAS.
Julian Downward, Principal Group Leader of the Oncogene Biology Laboratory at the Crick, said: “Given the RAS gene is mutated across a wide range of cancers, we’ve been exploring how to stop it interacting with cell growth pathways for many years, but side effects have held back the development of treatments.
“Our collaborative effort has overcome this challenge by targeting the PI3K and RAS interaction specifically, leaving PI3K free to bind with its other targets. It’s exciting to see these clinical trials starting, highlighting the power of understanding chemistry and fundamental biology to get to something with potential to help people with cancer.”
“This discovery is a great example of how new discovery approaches can open up completely novel ways to tackle cancer,” said Matt Patricelli, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Vividion. “By designing molecules that stop RAS and PI3K from connecting, while still allowing healthy cell processes to continue, we’ve found a way to selectively block a key cancer growth signal. It’s incredibly rewarding to see this science now progressing in the clinic, where it has the potential to make a real difference for patients.”

Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U) have discovered that triple-negative breast cancer relies heavily on lipids for growth. These fatty acids, a defining feature of obesity, appear to drive tumor development. The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute and conducted using preclinical mouse models, indicates that breast cancer patients and survivors with obesity might benefit from treatments that reduce lipid levels, and that high-fat diets such as the ketogenic diet could be harmful for them.
“The key here is that people have underestimated the importance of fats and lipids in the all-encompassing term that is obesity,” says Keren Hilgendorf, PhD, a Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator and assistant professor of biochemistry at the U. “But our study shows that breast cancer cells are really addicted to lipids, and the abundance of lipids in patients with obesity is one of the reasons that breast cancer is more prevalent and more aggressive in these patients.”
High lipid levels in the blood, a condition known as hyperlipidemia, often accompany obesity. Hilgendorf and her colleagues, Amandine Chaix, PhD, assistant professor of nutrition and integrative physiology, and Greg Ducker, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry, studied mice fed high-fat diets and others genetically designed to have hyperlipidemia without other hallmarks of obesity, such as elevated glucose and insulin. In both cases, excess lipids alone were enough to speed up tumor growth.
“The idea is that lipids, which form the surface membrane of the cell, are like building blocks,” says Chaix. “If a cell receives the signal to proliferate and more building blocks are available, the tumor is going to grow more easily. We see that a high amount of lipids enables this proliferation.”
When researchers reduced lipid levels in the mouse models, tumor growth slowed, even in the presence of high glucose and insulin. While mice and humans have different metabolisms, these findings may point to new therapeutic approaches or diet recommendations to help control cancer growth.
“We think this has therapeutic implications, because if you could just lower the lipids — which we already know how to do in patients, for example, with lipid-lowering medication — that could be a way to decelerate breast cancer growth. If we can target these high levels of fat in the blood, the cancer suffers because the lipids are no longer feeding the cancer,” says Hilgendorf. “But while our results in mice were striking, there are clear limitations in directly projecting these findings onto human patients. More research using human samples and patients will be necessary to confirm our hypotheses.”
The results may also influence how patients and survivors with obesity manage their weight. Doctors often encourage weight loss to help lower the risk of cancer returning or spreading, but there is limited evidence about which diets are safest or most effective.

Many patients consider the keto diet, which emphasizes high fat and very low carbohydrate intake to trigger a metabolic state called ketosis, where the body burns fat instead of carbs for energy.
The research team cautions that while such diets can promote weight loss, patients should carefully assess their overall metabolic health before adopting them.
“For patients who are diagnosed with breast cancer and have an elevated BMI, we would advise them to consult their physician and develop a weight loss plan as part of their treatment. If you have high cholesterol levels to start with, think about a weight loss plan or potential pharmaceuticals that could lower your lipid levels,” says Ducker. “As our study shows, diets like keto that are very high in fat can have serious unintended side effects — even causing the tumor to grow.”
The study suggests that lipids may also fuel tumor growth in patients with obesity who have other types of breast cancer, or ovarian or colorectal cancers. The research team says the next steps will be to preclinically evaluate how anti-lipid drugs could improve responses to chemotherapy. They also want to better understand how the lipids are feeding cancer cells.
Chaix, Ducker, and Hilgendorf also stress that their study is one specific type of cancer adapting to an obese environment, and that the keto diet may be beneficial for other types of cancer.
The results of the study were published in Cancer & Metabolism. Renan Vieira, doctoral student at the U, is the first author. The critical research happening every day at Huntsman Cancer Institute is supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute, including cancer center support grant P30 CA042014, U01 CA272529-03S1, NCI UH2 CA286584, as well as Huntsman Cancer Foundation.

A large-scale investigation has found that people who regularly consume both sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and low- or no-sugar-sweetened beverages (LNSSBs) face a significantly greater likelihood of developing metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).1
Presented at UEG Week 2025, the research followed 123,788 adults from the UK Biobank who had no signs of liver disease at the start of the study. Participants’ drink habits were recorded through repeated 24-hour dietary questionnaires, allowing researchers to explore how both SSB and LNSSB consumption related to MASLD, liver fat buildup, and deaths linked to liver disease.
Individuals who drank more than 250 grams of either type of beverage per day had notably higher risks: a 60% increased likelihood of developing MASLD for those consuming LNSSBs (HR: 1.599) and a 50% increase for those drinking SSBs (HR: 1.469). During a median follow-up of 10.3 years, 1,178 participants developed MASLD and 108 died from liver-related causes. Although SSBs were not significantly connected to liver-related mortality, LNSSB consumption was. Both kinds of drinks were also associated with higher levels of liver fat.
MASLD, previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), occurs when excess fat builds up in the liver. Over time, this can trigger inflammation (hepatitis) and lead to symptoms such as abdominal pain, fatigue, and loss of appetite.2 Now the most common chronic liver condition worldwide, MASLD affects more than 30% of people and is rapidly becoming a leading cause of liver-related deaths.3
Lead researcher Lihe Liu explained, “SSBs have long been under scrutiny, while their ‘diet’ alternatives are often seen as the healthier choice. Both, however, are widely consumed and their effects on liver health have not been well understood.”
“Our study shows that LNSSBs were actually linked to a higher risk of MASLD, even at modest intake levels such as a single can per day. These findings challenge the common perception that these drinks are harmless and highlight the need to reconsider their role in diet and liver health, especially as MASLD emerges as a global health concern.”
Liu also discussed the possible biological reasons behind the findings: “The higher sugar content in SSBs can cause rapid spikes in blood glucose and insulin, promote weight gain and increase uric acid levels, all of which contribute to liver fat accumulation. LNSSBs, on the other hand, may affect liver health by altering the gut microbiome, disrupting the feeling of fullness, driving sweet cravings and even stimulating insulin secretion.”
The authors emphasized that these findings support limiting both SSBs and LNSSBs as part of a comprehensive prevention strategy, targeting not only liver disease but also cardio-renal-metabolic health. Replacing either beverage with water significantly reduced MASLD risk — by 12.8% for SSBs and 15.2% for LNSSBs — while substitution between the two types of beverages offered no risk reduction.

Liu added, “The safest approach is to limit both sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened drinks. Water remains the best choice as it removes the metabolic burden and prevents fat accumulation in the liver, whilst hydrating the body.”
The researchers now aim to explore causal mechanisms more deeply through long-term, randomized and genetic trials with a focus on how sugar and its substitutes interact with the gut microbiome and influence liver disease.
References: Liu, L et al. Sugar- and low/non-sugar-sweetened beverages and risks of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and liver-related mortality: A prospective analysis of the UK Biobank. Presented at UEG Week 2025; 7 October 2025; Berlin, Germany. Girish, V. and John, S. Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD). (2025). PMID: 31082077 Younossi, Z. M. et al. The global epidemiology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH): a systematic review. (2023). Journals. DOI: 10.1097/HEP.0000000000000004

A major study from Cleveland Clinic found that people with both obesity and type 2 diabetes who had weight-loss surgery lived longer and experienced fewer serious health issues than those who used GLP-1 receptor agonist medications alone. These drugs, which mimic a natural hormone that helps regulate blood sugar and appetite, are commonly prescribed for diabetes and weight management. They include medications such as semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy), liraglutide (Victoza, Saxenda), dulaglutide (Trulicity), exenatide (Byetta, Bydureon), and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound).
Over a 10-year period, patients who underwent weight-loss surgery (also called bariatric or metabolic surgery) lost more weight, maintained better blood sugar control, and needed fewer prescriptions for diabetes and heart conditions. The study was published in Nature Medicine.
“Even with today’s best medicines, metabolic surgery offers unique and lasting benefits for people with obesity and diabetes,” said Ali Aminian, M.D., director of Cleveland Clinic’s Bariatric & Metabolic Institute and primary investigator of the study. “The benefits we observed went beyond weight loss. Surgery was linked to fewer heart problems, less kidney disease, and even lower rates of diabetes-related eye damage.”
GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) receptor agonists are a group of medications commonly prescribed to manage type 2 diabetes and obesity and to lower related health risks. Both GLP-1 drugs and metabolic surgery are known to improve cardiovascular and metabolic health.
The M6 study (Macrovascular and Microvascular Morbidity and Mortality after Metabolic Surgery versus Medicines) tracked 3,932 adults with obesity and diabetes who received care at Cleveland Clinic for up to a decade. Of these, 1,657 underwent metabolic surgery (such as gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy) while 2,275 were treated with GLP-1 medicines (including liraglutide, dulaglutide, exenatide, semaglutide, and tirzepatide).
After 10 years, those who had surgery showed significantly better outcomes, including a: 32% lower risk of death 35% lower risk of major heart problems (such as heart attack, heart failure, or stroke) 47% lower risk of serious kidney disease 54% lower risk of diabetes-related eye damage (retinopathy)On average, surgical patients lost 21.6% of their body weight, compared with 6.8% among those taking GLP-1 medicines. Blood sugar control, measured by hemoglobin A1c, improved more with surgery (-0.86%) than with medication (-0.23%). People who had surgery also needed fewer prescriptions for diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol management.
“Even in the era of these powerful new drugs to treat obesity and diabetes, metabolic surgery may provide additional benefits, including a survival advantage,” said Steven Nissen, M.D., Chief Academic Officer of the Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute at Cleveland Clinic and senior author of the study.
“Our findings indicate that surgery should remain an important treatment option for obesity and diabetes,” said Dr. Aminian. “These long-term benefits are harder to achieve with GLP-1 medicines alone, as many patients stop using the medications over time.”
According to the authors, the study has some limitations. It was observational rather than a randomized comparison of drugs and surgery, and it did not focus exclusively on the newest and most effective GLP-1 medicines. The researchers note that future studies should directly compare surgery with newer GLP-1 therapies, such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, to further guide treatment decisions.