Day: July 1, 2025

Categories : CancerTags :

Celebrate Christmas in July with PinkDrive

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Cold Nights, Warm Hearts, Festive Vibes – and Support for Early Detection

Think log fires, festive cheer, a three-course dinner and dancing to a live band – all wrapped up in the joy of giving. On Saturday, 5th July 2025, PinkDrive will host a Christmas in July dinner at the Indaba Hotel in Johannesburg, a night of holiday cheer and hope in action: raising funds for a life-changing cause. And you’re invited.

PinkDrive is a non-profit (NPC) committed to prolonging lives through the early detection of gender-related cancers. It delivers essential health services to thousands of South Africans every year by bringing mobile mammography units directly to communities that need them most, from rural villages to peri-urban areas across the nine provinces. These trucks provide clinical breast exams, mammograms, pap smears, and PSA testing, helping to detect cancer early in areas where healthcare access is often limited or unavailable.

Like many non-profits, PinkDrive depends on the support of corporate partners, sponsors, government, and the public to sustain its vital work, among them, Lee-Chem Laboratories. “This is a cause that is close to our hearts,” says Bhavna Sanker, Marketing Manager at Lee-Chem Laboratories. “Each year, we proudly support PinkDrive through our Mandy’s brand sponsorship, focusing on spreading awareness, sharing survivor stories, and making sure people understand their healthcare options.”

As part of their continued support, every guest at the Christmas in July function will receive a goodie bag from Lee-Chem, filled with products from their Mandy’s brand. “We are truly honoured to have Lee-Chem and the Mandy’s brand as valued sponsors of our Christmas in July Dinner fundraiser,” comments Nelius du Preez, Operations Manager at PinkDrive NPC. “Their continued support, alongside our other generous sponsors, makes events like this possible and helps us not only raise vital funds but also amplify the message of early detection and health education across South Africa.”

The fundraiser will spotlight the resilience of breast cancer survivors, with Deputy Minister of Electricity and Energy, Samantha Graham-Maré, sharing her personal journey with cancer. PinkDrive CEO and Founder, Noelene Kotschan, a passionate advocate for early detection prolonging  lives, will also address guests, and your charming host for the evening? A dashing Mister Global SA finalist will take the mic as MC, steering the evening from heartfelt reflections to lively fundraising with raffles and auctions featuring holiday packages, original artworks, and other exclusive prizes.

“We call the event ‘a night of giving back’ because it is occasions like these that allow us to keep our mobile health units on the road, reaching men and women who might otherwise not have access to screening services,” says du Preez. “Together with compassionate partners like Lee-Chem, we are driving change and prolonging lives, one screening at a time. And we are grateful to every corporate and individual who supports the event by purchasing tickets,” he adds.

All proceeds from the evening will be ringfenced to build and operate a new mobile mammography unit, expanding PinkDrive’s reach to screen more South Africans and detect cancer early, when treatment is most effective. “We encourage the public to join us in this mission by purchasing tickets and supporting the evening’s fundraising efforts,” concludes Sanker.

Tickets for the Christmas in July dinner are R600 per person and available now at pinkdrive.org. Don’t miss this chance to dress up, give back, and help bring hope where it’s needed most.

Categories : Metabolic Disorders NeurologyTags :

Diabetes Drug May Serve as Alternative Treatment Option for Hydrocephalus

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Photo by Anna Shvets

A drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes may reduce excess fluid in the brains of patients with hydrocephalus, which could help treat the disease less invasively than current treatments, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Normal pressure hydrocephalus occurs when excess cerebrospinal fluid builds up inside the skull and puts pressure on the brain. The cause of the condition is elusive and affects up to three percent of individuals over the age of 65, with symptoms including cognitive decline, difficulty walking and bladder problems.  

Patients are typically treated with permanent ventriculoperitoneal shunts, which are surgically implanted in the front or back of the skull and are connected to a valve that diverts excess cerebrospinal fluid away from the brain and into the abdomen where it is absorbed. The procedure has been shown to dramatically improve mobility, bladder control and cognitive functioning in patients with hydrocephalus, according to senior study author Stephen Magill, MD, PhD.

“It’s a great procedure because it’s one of the few things you can do that actually reverses these symptoms,” said Magill, who is assistant professor of Neurological Surgery.

There is, however, no pharmacological treatment currently approved to treat hydrocephalus. Additionally, nearly 20% of patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus also have type 2 diabetes and take sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors to manage their blood sugar, cardiovascular and kidney function, and weight loss.

Magill recently observed a reduction in the brain ventricle size in a patient with hydrocephalus who had a ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgically implanted and then began taking SGLT2 inhibitors to treat their type 2 diabetes. This phenomenon prompted Magill to further investigate the impact of SGLT2 inhibitors on ventricular size in patients with hydrocephalus.

“The medication inhibits a receptor found in the kidneys, which is where it works for diabetes. However, that receptor is also expressed in the choroid plexus, which is the structure in the brain that secretes the spinal fluid. Although this was known from animal studies, the clinical aspects of this biology have not been fully appreciated,” Magill said.

In the current study, three patients with hydrocephalus underwent CT scans both before and after surgery for ventriculoperitoneal shunts. After surgery, each patient began taking SGLT2 inhibitors for a medical indication and then underwent additional CT scans.

From analyzing these scans, Magill’s team discovered that all three patients showed a reduction in ventricle size as well as structural changes in their brains after starting SGLT2 therapy. One patient demonstrated dramatic ventricle size reduction due to ventricular collapse and required a shunt valve adjustment to reduce cerebrospinal fluid drainage.

“It’s a really interesting clinical observation because it raises the possibility that these medications could be used to treat normal pressure hydrocephalus in the future, which would normally require surgery,” Magill said.

Magill said the findings have sparked a new line of research in studying how SGLT2 inhibitors could help prevent hydrocephalus, adding that his team is now studying SGLT2 knockout mouse models to better understand the drug’s impact on ventricular size.

Their findings could ultimately inform new therapeutic strategies for treating normal pressure hydrocephalus as well as post-traumatic hydrocephalus, or the buildup of cerebrospinal fluid after traumatic brain injury, according to Magill.

“This sparks a new line of research on how normal pressured hydrocephalus develops, what causes it, how this protein works in creating and secreting spinal fluid, and has direct translational implications,” Magill said. “There’s a whole new avenue of potentially treating this disease that might save a patient from having surgery, and there’s always risks with surgery. It will also evolve our understanding of how these drugs work.”

Source: Northwestern Medicine

Categories : Cancer NeurologyTags :

New Strategy for the Treatment of Severe Childhood Cancer

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Credit: National Cancer Institute

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University have identified a new treatment strategy for neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. By combining two antioxidant enzyme inhibitors, they have converted cancer cells in mice into healthy nerve cells. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Neuroblastoma is a type of childhood cancer that affects the nervous system and is the leading cause of cancer-related death in young children. Some patients have a good prognosis, but those with metastatic tumours often cannot be cured despite modern combinations of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

“The children who survive often have lifelong cognitive difficulties due to the harsh treatment, so there is a great need for new forms of therapies for children with neuroblastoma,” says Marie Arsenian Henriksson, professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumour and Cell Biology at Karolinska Institutet.

Transform cancer cells

Differentiation therapy is a treatment method used in neuroblastoma that aims to transform cancer cells into more mature and healthy cells. The problem with the current retinoic acid differentiation therapy is that many patients do not respond to treatment, and about half develop resistance.

In collaboration with researchers at Lund University, Marie Arsenian Henriksson’s research team has shown that inhibition of two specific enzymes, PRDX6 and GSTP1, could be an alternative to retinoic acid treatment.

Mature into healthy neurons

Neuroblastoma is characterised by high oxidative stress due to the active metabolism in the cancer cells. Tumours are therefore dependent on antioxidant enzymes such as PRDX6 and GSTP1 to manage the stress and avoid cell death. High levels of these enzymes are associated with a poorer prognosis.

“When we inhibit these enzymes in cell cultures as well as in mouse models, some of the tumour cells die while others mature into active, healthy neurons, impairing tumour growth,” says Judit Liaño-Pons, researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Tumour and Cell Biology.

Needs to be tested in children

In the next step, the treatment will need to be tested in a clinical trial to investigate its safety and efficacy in children. One of the inhibitors has received orphan drug designation from the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of a different diagnosis in adults, making it a particularly promising drug candidate, according to the scientists.

Source: Karolinska Institutet

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease NeurologyTags :

Study Finds that Cognitive Impairment is Common After Cardiogenic Shock

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Pexels Photo by Freestocksorg

Many survivors of cardiogenic shock showed evidence of new cognitive impairment after leaving the hospital, according to a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers. The findings, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, highlight a need to screen survivors and provide referrals to neuropsychology experts, the authors said.

“Our study demonstrated that nearly two-thirds of cardiogenic shock survivors experienced cognitive impairment within three months of hospital discharge, underscoring a critical but overlooked aspect of recovery,” said senior investigator James de Lemos, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of the Division of Cardiology at UT Southwestern. “The findings are important for developing interventions that focus not only on improving survival but also on preventing or mitigating the functional consequences of cardiogenic shock, including cognitive decline.”

Cardiogenic shock results from heart failure, heart attack, or complications following cardiac surgery, and is characterised by a sudden drop in heart pumping ability. It results in acute hypoperfusion and hypoxia of the organs and has historically resulted in high mortality.

With advances in treatment during the past two decades, up to 70% of patients suffering from cardiogenic shock can now survive. But there is limited understanding of survivors’ recovery and quality of life after they leave the hospital.

“Our study is the first to systematically examine the cognitive outcomes of cardiogenic shock survivors, evaluating how cognition impacts patients’ ability to return to daily activities,” said Eric Hall, M.D., a clinical fellow in the Division of Cardiology who was the study leader and first author. “We found that cardiogenic shock is associated with cognitive impairment, which is an under-recognized consequence strongly linked to patients’ overall quality of life.”

UTSW researchers conducted the study by enrolling 141 patients who had survived cardiogenic shock before being discharged. To establish a baseline, family members completed a questionnaire, the AD8 survey, about the patients’ cognitive function before hospitalisation.

Before discharge, each patient completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Blind (bMoCA) to screen for signs of cognitive impairment. Three months after discharge, patients repeated the assessments, allowing researchers to track changes in thinking ability and daily functioning over time.

Among patients with no sign of cognitive impairment before admission, 65% were found to have new impairment at discharge, and 53% continued to show impairment at their three-month follow-up. UTSW researchers emphasized that these findings should inform the development of comprehensive survivorship programs including screening protocols to identify impairments patients face and rehabilitation programs to help them recover from those challenges.

“We hope to use this study as a foundation to develop targeted rehabilitation strategies that connect patients with neuropsychology experts and improve long-term recovery in cardiogenic shock survivors,” Dr de Lemos said.

Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center

Categories : GastrointestinalTags :

No Evidence that Common Medications Trigger Microscopic Colitis in Older Adults

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Study suggests that patients with the condition do not need to stop taking important medications.

Photo by Kampus Production

Microscopic colitis (MC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that severely reduces quality of life. MC is responsible for over 30% of all chronic diarrhoea cases in people over 65 years of age, and its prevalence is rising worldwide. Although little is known about what causes MC, previous studies have suggested that a range of common medications could trigger the condition, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), blood pressure medications, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

However, according to a new large-scale, longitudinal study of older adults in Sweden from Mass General Brigham, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Karolinska Institutet researchers, most of these medications are not associated with increased risk of MC. Results are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Our study demonstrated that, contrary to the previous belief, it’s unlikely that medications are the primary triggers for microscopic colitis,” said corresponding author Hamed Khalili, MD MPH, associate director of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit and director of Clinical Research at the Crohn’s and Colitis Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham health care system. “Clinicians should carefully balance the intended benefits of these medications against the very low likelihood that they cause microscopic colitis.”

To look for associations between medication use and MC diagnosis, the researchers analyzed data for over 2.8 million individuals aged 65 years and older in Sweden. The data included information on prescribed medications, hospitalizations, medical diagnoses, and gastrointestinal biopsy results.

Overall, they found that the risk of developing MC was less than 0.5%. There was no association between NSAIDs, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE-I) inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), or statins and the risk of developing MC, but individuals prescribed SSRIs had a 0.04% higher risk of developing MC. However, the researchers also showed that individuals prescribed SSRIs were also more likely to receive a colonoscopy, which is necessary to diagnose MC.

“Our analyses suggest that surveillance bias is a likely explanation for earlier findings that implicated medications in the pathogenesis of microscopic colitis and may also explain the continued association with SSRIs,” said senior author Jonas F. Ludvigsson, MD PhD, paediatrician at Örebro University Hospital and Professor at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

The study did not include data on primary care visits, which could impact the likelihood of colonoscopy, or lifestyle factors such as diet and smoking status.

Source: Mass General Brigham