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Category: health

Cost-Effectiveness of Adjuvant Immunotherapy in Cancer Treatments: A Systematic Review

Adjuvant immunotherapy is increasingly integrated into cancer care to reduce recurrence and improve survival. However, its high cost raises critical concerns regarding affordability and economic value across diverse health system contexts.

This review outlines health gains and economic value, and identifies where future research, pricing reform, or prioritization are needed to support evidence-informed policymaking and sustainable use of immunotherapy in cancer treatment pathways.

Question Is adjuvant immunotherapy cost-effective across cancer types?

Findings This systematic review including 69 economic evaluations (2015−2025) found that adjuvant checkpoint inhibitors, usually single-agent, were associated with higher quality-adjusted life-year/life-year gains and were determined to be cost-effective by 40 studies (58%), with the strongest signals in non−small cell lung cancer and melanoma, particularly in early-stage/high-risk populations, and for some combination regimens. Industry-funded studies more frequently reported cost-effective decisions and findings were sensitive to drug prices, model assumptions, and country-specific willingness-to-pay thresholds.

Meaning These findings suggest that adjuvant immunotherapy can offer good value for money in selected high-risk settings; decisions should be indication-specific, aligned with local health technology assessment thresholds, and supported by price negotiation or managed-entry agreements.

CARTA: Human Brain Specializations Related to Language and Theory of Mind with James Rilling

Humans excel at transmitting ideas, skills, and knowledge across generations, and at building on those competencies in a cumulative manner. James Rilling, Professor of Psychology at Emory University, explores how the transmission of our cumulative culture is assumed to depend on both language and mental perspective-taking, or theory of mind. If humans have specialized abilities in these domains, we must have neurobiological specializations to support them. Our research has used comparative primate neuroimaging to attempt to identify such specializations. The arcuate fasciculus is a white matter fiber tract that links Wernicke’s and Broca’s language areas. It is known to be involved in multiple, high level linguistic functions such as lexical semantics, complex syntax, and speech fluency. Using diffusion weighted imaging and tractography, we have demonstrated human specializations in the size and trajectory of the arcuate fasciculus that may partially explain human linguistic abilities. Theory of Mind depends on a set of cortical regions that belong to a neural network known as the default mode network that is functionally connected, highly active at rest, and deactivated by attention-demanding cognitive tasks. We and others have used functional neuroimaging to show that chimpanzees and other primates appear to have a default mode network that is similar to that of humans. However, the non-human primate default mode network seems to have weaker connectivity between certain key nodes, suggesting that these connections could play a role in human theory of mind specializations. Recorded on 02/27/2026. [3/2026] [Show ID: 41329]

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Learn more about anthropogeny on CARTA’s website:
https://carta.anthropogeny.org/

More videos from: CARTA — The Idea Organ.
(https://www.uctv.tv/carta-idea-organ)

Explore More Science & Technology on UCTV
(https://www.uctv.tv/science)
Science and technology continue to change our lives. University of California scientists are tackling the important questions like climate change, evolution, oceanography, neuroscience and the potential of stem cells.

UCTV is the broadcast and online media platform of the University of California, featuring programming from its ten campuses, three national labs and affiliated research institutions. UCTV explores a broad spectrum of subjects for a general audience, including science, health and medicine, public affairs, humanities, arts and music, business, education, and agriculture. Launched in January 2000, UCTV embraces the core missions of the University of California — teaching, research, and public service – by providing quality, in-depth television far beyond the campus borders to inquisitive viewers around the world.

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Potential Risks of Blocking GDF15‐Based Brain Energy Sensing

GDF15 signals energetic stress to the brain, leading to unpleasant symptoms as the body conserves and reallocates energy. In conditions such as frailty and cancer, suppression of GDF15 signaling is expected to lead to an improvement in symptoms, but potentially at the cost of long-term health and survival.

Working memory may rely on calcium-tuned synaptic boosts, study suggests

Working memory is a cognitive function that is essential for carrying out everyday activities and temporarily retaining information. This process enables us to understand information, learn and manage responses in a controlled manner—abilities that are often impaired in certain neurodegenerative diseases. Now, a study published in Cell Reports has identified a molecular pathway in the brain that is crucial for the proper functioning of working memory.

The study, conducted using animal models, is led by Francisco José López-Murcia, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona (UBneuro), and a member of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL). The team led by Professor Nils Brose at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences (MPI-NAT, Göttingen, Germany) is also participating in the project.

2025 WSES Guidelines on Acute Appendicitis

Among patients with Appendicitis, the guidelines recommend laparoscopic appendectomy as the standard surgical approach and support delayed surgery within 24 hours for uncomplicated cases.

For complicated appendicitis, short-course postoperative antibiotics (2–3 days) are advised, and routine interval appendectomy is not recommended except in adults aged ≥35 years following nonoperative management with abscess, to reduce risk of missed neoplasm.

This Special Communication outlines the key questions and evidence-based recommendations of the 2025 update of the WSES Jerusalem Guidelines to support clinicians and health care systems in the diagnosis and treatment of acute appendicitis.

Large-scale look at the exposome shows combined environmental exposures rival genetics in shaping human health outcomes

For decades, scientists have been carefully unraveling the role of genes in disease by examining how small variations in a person’s genetic code can shape lifelong risk of developing common conditions such as cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. But genetics only tell part of the story.

The other part comes from all the external and internal exposures a person experiences during their lifetime, which can range from pollution to infections to diet and lifestyle. Cumulatively, these exposures—and the body’s biological response to them—make up what scientists have termed the exposome.

A team led by scientists at Harvard Medical School has now conducted what may be the largest-scale study to date to quantify the relationships between exposures and health outcomes, testing more than 100,000 associations. The work demonstrates the importance of studying potential environmental disease risks in aggregate rather than one at a time.

Microbiota derived nicotinic acid protects colon tissue

Prior research has shown that the four sections of the colon—ascending, transverse, descending and sigmoid—have different functions and risks for disease, but it wasn’t clear why these variations exist.

In this study, the investigators showed that the identity of distinct regions of the colon are regulated by the gut microbiome. They identified nicotinic acid, a molecule produced by certain bacteria in the gut microbiome, as a main driver of these regional differences in the colon’s sections. Nicotinic acid, also known as niacin, part of the vitamin B3 family, helps the body convert food into energy and supports the health of cells.

The researchers compared laboratory mice with and without a microbiome. They found that production of nicotinic acid by bacteria in the upper colon activates a protective mechanism in colon cells by the induction of Pparα expression to establish proximal colonocyte identity. In mice without a microbiome, minimal nicotinic acid was produced, and cells in the upper colon became more vulnerable to damage and disease.

Investigators also studied human colon tissue samples. They found that the different sections of the human colon showed regional characteristics similar to patterns observed in mice. And in samples from human patients with Crohn’s disease— a type of bowel disease in which abnormal immune system activity causes inflammation—this protective mechanism was reduced. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.

The gut microbiome—the trillions of bacteria and other microbes that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract—drives a process vital for protecting the colon against tissue injury, according to the findings of a new study.

The discovery, published in Cell, has important implications for understanding how a wide variety of intestinal disorders may develop.

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Precision radio waves may help counter brain diseases

A study has found that precise application of radio waves can change the activity of brain cells in ways that could counter neurological conditions. Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, the work introduces a technique called transcranial radio frequency stimulation (TRFS), which promises to treat neurological diseases with neither the invasiveness of surgery nor the frequent failure of drugs as patients (e.g., 30% of people with depression and epilepsy) develop resistance.

Published online recently in the journal Brain Stimulation, the study describes the use of radio frequency (RF) energy, which is effective at penetrating biological tissue. The study says TRFS could overcome the limits of older technologies because it can, depending on the nature of the disease, target either a small part of the brain or the entire organ, and it can dial nerve signaling up or down.

“Our study is the first to demonstrate in live mice the potential of the technology to be highly effective for adjusting neural activity,” said senior study author György Buzsáki, MD, Ph.D., the Biggs Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Neuroscience at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “The need for better, noninvasive techniques is becoming ever more urgent, with one in three people globally affected by some form of brain disorder during their lifetime,” said Dr. Buzsáki, also faculty at the Institute for Translational Neuroscience.

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