Research Roundup: Cancer; Covid; UTIs; Pneumococcus
Each week, KFF Health News compiles a selection of health policy studies and briefs.
ScienceDaily:
AI-Assisted Breast-Cancer Screening May Reduce Unnecessary Testing
Researchers showed that AI assistance potentially could improve breast-cancer screening by reducing the number of false positives without missing true positives. (Washington University School of Medicine, 4/10)
ScienceDaily:
New Insight Into Combating Drug-Resistant Prostate Cancer
New research sheds light on the significance of the glucocorticoid receptor in drug-resistant prostate cancer, showing that the development of drug resistance could be prevented by limiting the activity of coregulator proteins. (University of Eastern Finland, 4/10)
CIDRAP:
Surveys Spotlight Pregnant Women's Drop In Confidence Over COVID Vaccines
A new study details dramatically lower confidence in COVID-19 vaccine safety in pregnant and recently pregnant women in 2023 compared to 2021, despite evidence to the contrary, according to findings published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Soucheray, 4/9)
CIDRAP:
Food Supplement Fails To Reduce Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections
A potential antibiotic-sparing strategy for women with recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs) failed to move the needle in a randomized controlled trial, British researchers reported yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine. The food supplement D-mannose is a simple sugar found in many fruits and vegetables that has shown potential efficacy in preventing UTIs in animal models and some clinical studies. Researchers have suspected D-mannose might work by preventing bacteria from adhering to the walls of the urinary tract and could be an alternative to daily prophylactic (preventive) antibiotics, a common approach that comes with the risk of adverse effects and subsequent drug-resistant UTIs. (Dall, 4/9)
CIDRAP:
Frequent Contact With Young Children Linked To Increased Pneumococcus Risk In Adults
A new study released ahead of the upcoming European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Barcelona, Spain, shows that transmission of pneumococcus was highest among older adults who had frequent contact with preschoolers and young school-aged children. (Dall, 4/4)
