https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men diagnosed with prostate cancer are less likely to receive surgery than other Australian men and more likely to face financial barriers to treatment, according to the largest Australian study of its kind. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-access-barriers-aboriginal-men-prostate.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 22:20:01 EDT news705065881 An erectile dysfunction drug that is also used to treat symptoms, such as sudden urgency and frequency, associated with an enlarged prostate in men may heighten the risk of glaucoma, a serious eye condition, a large comparative study published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology finds. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-erectile-dysfunction-drug-enlarged-prostate.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 18:30:01 EDT news704965160 Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) has made significant strides over the past 50 years, although it only recently received FDA approval to treat prostate cancer. But despite the progress—and billions of dollars in industry investments—one area that has lagged behind is dosing, which is still one-size-fits-all. Now, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed an AI model that can inform individualized treatment by generating a patient's radiation dose map with gold-standard accuracy in under 23 seconds. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-ai-tool-dose-personalize-prostate.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 17:00:05 EDT news705075901 Special Rules for End of Life is an important mechanism in the benefits system designed to give people with a terminal illness fast-tracked access to vital financial support. But this qualitative study, the first to interview patients, caregivers and health care professionals about the issue, shows the system is failing too many dying people. Uncertainty about how long someone has left to live, low awareness of the rules, difficulties talking about money and practical barriers can all stop eligible people from getting the support they need. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-thousands-dying-people-vital-fast.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:00:03 EDT news705056581 The American College of Surgeons (ACS) Commission on Cancer (CoC) has introduced a new rural accreditation category to expand access to high-quality cancer care in rural communities, where long travel times and specialist shortages often limit care. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-hospitals-rural-cancer-gaps.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:20:01 EDT news705055742 UCLA researchers have identified a promising strategy to make a new class of targeted cancer therapies more effective against one of the deadliest forms of prostate cancer, potentially overcoming treatment resistance that has limited their success. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-combination-therapies-treatment-resistance-advanced.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:00:10 EDT news705062642 While there has been a recent increase among Medicare recipients in genomic testing that helps match cancer patients to the most effective treatment for their tumor, many Medicare beneficiaries with cancer are still not receiving next-generation sequencing (NGS), according to a new analysis by Georgetown University researchers. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-medicare-coverage-cancer-patients-treatment.html Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:14 EDT news704451452 A large new study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the National Cancer Institute finds that cancer-related health care expenses continue to be high for older adults, varying substantially by cancer type and how early it is caught. Spending was greatest for patients diagnosed with advanced cancers, especially at the end of life, exceeding $100,000 per year. The study is published in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-cancer-high-vary-substantially-stage.html Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:00:03 EDT news704458502 A cancer diagnosis can turn life upside down, but new research suggests that its consequences reach far beyond physical health. Patients diagnosed with cancer are twice as likely to develop a mental disorder later in life as cancer-free individuals, according to a new study involving nearly 300,000 Danish cancer patients who had no previous history of mental illness. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-cancer-patients-mental-disorder.html Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:40:02 EDT news704451243 A new way for hard-to-treat cancer cells to protect themselves from being killed by anticancer drugs has been found. The novel method involves tumors hijacking specific defenses for repairing damaged DNA, which are easier to block than previously known mechanisms. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-weak-linked-dna-aggressive-drug.html Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:00:07 EDT news704389621 The movements of a surgeon in a procedure—called "surgical gestures"—can be used to predict patient recovery, according to Cedars-Sinai investigators. Their findings, published in npj Digital Medicine, suggest this technology could help surgeons refine their techniques and improve patient outcomes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-ai-surgical-technique-prostate-cancer.html Sun, 26 Jul 2026 12:00:04 EDT news704108972 Cisplatin is one of the most successful cancer medicines ever developed. Doctors use it to treat many cancers, including lung, ovarian, breast, testicular and head and neck cancers. However, cisplatin has a serious problem. It does not attack only cancer cells. It can also reach healthy organs and damage them. In particular, cisplatin can harm the kidneys and peripheral nerves. Patients receiving cisplatin often experience pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in their hands and feet. These side effects can become so severe that doctors must reduce the dose or stop treatment completely. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-pro-version-cisplatin-cancer-power.html Sat, 25 Jul 2026 13:40:02 EDT news704107009 When a cancer cell leaves the original tumor to spread to a new, faraway location, it first has to survive what most cells cannot: periodic high-force moments in the vessels and heart of up to 5,000 dynes per centimeter squared as it circulates throughout the body. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-mechanoresistant-cancer-cells-survive-high.html Fri, 24 Jul 2026 12:40:05 EDT news704111821 Enhancers are pieces of DNA that act like switches, regulating when genes are turned on and off and how strongly they are activated. Scientists know these switches play a critical role in cancer and other diseases, but they have yet to fully understand how enhancers work together to control gene expression. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-reveals-networks-dna-gene-cancer.html Thu, 23 Jul 2026 07:40:06 EDT news704002502 Risk calculators that doctors use to estimate a person's risk of a heart attack or stroke work about as well for predicting certain cancers, according to a new study by UCL (University College London) researchers. The tools, used widely by primary care physicians and hospitals in the U.K., U.S. and Europe, estimate a person's percentage risk of having a heart attack or stroke over 10 years based on factors such as age, BMI and smoking status—factors also linked to a higher risk of cancer. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-heart-tools-cancers-disease.html Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:00:03 EDT news703861021 Who doesn't want cancer testing results at lower cost, with greater speed and accuracy? Interdisciplinary innovators like Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) program leader Brian Cunningham are among the pioneers of the emerging field of point-of-care (POC) diagnostic technology aiming to make this dream a reality. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-paradigm-shift-oncology-emergence-diagnostic.html Tue, 21 Jul 2026 14:20:01 EDT news703856101 A noninvasive DNA blood test can identify patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who are most likely to benefit from 223Ra radiopharmaceutical therapy and monitor their progress throughout treatment, according to new research published in the July issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Incorporating this approach to DNA profiling into clinical practice has the potential to refine patient selection, enable early detection of treatment resistance and optimize personalized management for patients with prostate cancer. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-dna-blood-patient-radiopharmaceutical-therapy.html Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:20:01 EDT news703759490 A new Northwestern Medicine study has uncovered how a key immunoregulatory receptor plays an unexpected dual role in promoting T-cell exhaustion during chronic infection and cancer, according to findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research sheds light on why targeted cancer therapies have shown limited efficacy in recent clinical trials for a variety of solid tumors, according to Bin Zhang, MD, Ph.D., the Johanna Dobe Professor of Cancer Immunology and senior author of the study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-immune-receptor-plays-dual-role.html Thu, 16 Jul 2026 14:40:07 EDT news703427335 In a new research report, scientists at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have found a potential therapeutic target that can boost the potency of a chemotherapy drug used to treat certain cancers. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-newly-inhibitors-boost-chemotherapy-drug.html Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:40:05 EDT news703338897 How a cancer is first discovered can shape what happens next, and new research shows a need to map treatment for older adults diagnosed in the emergency department who face sharply lower survival. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-emergency-cancer-linked-significantly-survival.html Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:20:03 EDT news703338481 Prostate cancer is often resistant to immunotherapy, which harnesses a person's immune system to recognize and destroy tumors. But a new technology that targets RNA in cancer cells gave immunotherapy new life, improving its ability to unleash cancer-killing cells in laboratory studies. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-tool-immune-therapy-effective-prostate.html Wed, 15 Jul 2026 11:20:04 EDT news703326374 Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting men worldwide. However, planning personalized radiotherapy in the advanced stages of the disease still requires more precise tools. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have now tested a novel approach. A combination of two diagnostic imaging techniques could pave the way for personalized radiotherapy. The results of the study have been published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-isotope-imaging-alpha-therapy-metastatic.html Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:40:06 EDT news703255307 A second prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET scan changed treatment plans for nearly half of patients whose first scan was negative, according to new research published in the July issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Findings from the repeat PSMA scans, which included both local and distant disease, resulted in a change in management for nearly 50% of these patients. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-prostate-specific-membrane-antigen-pet.html Sat, 11 Jul 2026 10:00:04 EDT news702823706 Rat disease models have played an integral role in scientific discovery and cancer research, including Nobel Prize–winning work from Charles Huggins on hormone therapy for prostate cancer in 1966. However, technical challenges in genetic engineering of rat models have limited their use in research, and over the decades, mouse models have become much more widely used. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-genome-rats-enables-accurate-estrogen.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 16:20:09 EDT news702831123 Researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a new form of hereditary prostate cancer that, while rare, can cause aggressive disease at a young age. The discovery paves the way for genetic testing programs that could help identify at-risk families and support early cancer detection. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-hereditary-prostate-cancer.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 15:20:05 EDT news702816841 In the United States, prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related disease and death in men. About half of prostate cancer cases in patients of European ancestry have a gene rearrangement in which the genes TMPRSS2 and ERG are fused together. This causes the ERG protein to be turned on, increasing the growth and migration of tumor cells. However, ERG has been considered undruggable because it lacks the usual pockets that a drug can bind to. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-hidden-pocket-reveals-prostate-cancer.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 15:20:01 EDT news702823022 New findings in a report led by the American Cancer Society (ACS) reveal an urgent picture of a growing global cancer burden and underscore the lifesaving potential of stronger prevention and equitable access to care. According to Global Cancer Statistics, 2026, nearly 21 million people were diagnosed with cancer and 9.8 million died from the disease globally in 2024. The estimates show about 1 in 5 people worldwide will develop cancer during their lifetime; 1 in 9 men and 1 in 13 women will die from the disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-people-cancer-lifetime.html Wed, 08 Jul 2026 16:20:01 EDT news702734942 A landmark Northwestern Medicine study published in JAMA suggests lung transplantation can significantly extend survival in select patients with advanced lung cancer. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-lung-transplant-survival-patients-terminal.html Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:20:03 EDT news702737704 A new cancer drug may be able to inhibit both tumor growth and the spread of aggressive prostate cancer. This is shown in a study conducted by researchers at Umeå University together with international collaborators, published in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-drug-metastatic-prostate-cancer-human.html Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:40:04 EDT news702638917 In 2013, Angelina Jolie inspired a wave of testing for pathogenic variants of the gene BRCA1 by announcing that she carried a variant that left her at such high risk of breast cancer that she chose a preventive mastectomy. Many people with similar gene variants won't need risk-reducing surgery, but knowing if you carry a dangerous variant could be lifesaving. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-breast-ovarian-cancer-patients-estonia.html Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:03 EDT news702539358