Archives: News and Blog

News and blog articles with structured metadata and Gutenberg content.

For Your Health: A painless test for lung cancer that saves lives

For Your Health Graphic 2020








Our progress against lung cancer is something to celebrate. Millions of lives have been saved in the U.S. alone since rates of smoking began to drop in the mid-1960s. And as smoking continues to become less common and treatment improves, we expect to gain even more ground against the disease.

One key tool helping to make that happen is yearly lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography, or low-dose CT.

A low-dose CT scan is a quick and simple screening test recommended for people ages 50-80 who are at increased risk of lung cancer because they smoke or have smoked within the past 15 years. People are eligible if they’ve smoked what amounts to one pack a day for 20 years, or half a pack a day for 40 years.

Like other recommended cancer screening tests, low-dose CT helps find cancer earlier when it’s more treatable. Studies have found that yearly screening can lower the risk of dying of lung cancer by up to 20%. That’s a large benefit — similar to what we see with mammograms and breast cancer.

It’s also a major advance. Becoming widely available for lung cancer screening about 10 years ago, low-dose CT is the only screening method that’s been found to lower the risk of dying of lung cancer. While other types of tests, like standard chest X-rays, can be good at helping find many types of health problems, they are not effective for lung cancer screening.

Even with its benefits, low-dose CT does have some potential risks that are important to know about. Potential harms can include experiencing short-term stress and anxiety about unclear scan results. There can also be the need for follow-up tests of suspicious findings that turn out not to be cancer. And there can be low amounts of radiation exposure from a scan. This amount is more than a standard X-ray but less than the level of radiation people are exposed to during a normal year.

Overall, the benefits of lung cancer screening are thought to outweigh the harms, though it is a personal balance. This makes it important for people thinking about screening to discuss the benefits and drawbacks with a doctor — and together decide if it’s right for them. If it is, the doctor can then make a referral for a screening appointment.

Most health insurance plans cover low-dose CT screening, but it’s good to check with your plan, medical center or doctor’s office. Those without insurance can contact their local or state health department about possible options to help with the cost of testing.

Once you get screened, it’s also important to keep getting tested each year for as long as you’re eligible. This increases the chances of catching a cancer early – again, when it’s more treatable.

And getting smoke-free or staying smoking-free is another key step to look after lung health. Quitting smoking lowers not only the risk of lung cancer but also many other diseases, including stroke, diabetes, heart disease, bronchitis, emphysema, macular degeneration and many other cancers. The benefits begin soon after stopping and build over time. For tips and resources on quitting, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669), or visit smokefree.gov.

Even with the progress we’ve made against lung cancer, it remains all too common, killing more people each year than any other cancer. Annual lung cancer screenings help save lives. Plus, it’s quick, easy and painless. That’s a great combination and, if you think you’re eligible, a great reason to call your medical center or doctor’s office to schedule an appointment.

It’s your health. Take control.

For Your Health: Breast density and why it matters

Just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, many women will begin to see important new information about their breast health on their mammogram reports.

A new federal rule now requires that women be informed about the density of their breasts following their mammograms. Breast density is a measure of how much breast tissue and connective tissue is in the breast compared to how much fat tissue. Higher-density breasts have higher amounts of breast and connective tissue. Lower-density breasts have more fat tissue.

“Having dense breast tissue is very common, affecting almost half of women getting screening mammograms,” said Dr. Debbie Bennett, chief of breast imaging at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “And dense breast tissue is not a cause for worry or concern. It can, however, mean your mammogram is harder for the radiologist to read, and it also slightly increases your overall risk for developing breast cancer at some point.”

With the new rule, women will get a message on their mammogram results that says either, “Your breast tissue is dense” or “Your breast tissue is not dense.”

Because denser breasts may make it harder to see abnormal areas on a mammogram, some women may get extra screening tests that can provide other images of the breasts.

“Depending on how dense your breast tissue is and whether you have any other risk factors for developing breast cancer – such as family history of breast cancer – your doctor may recommend that you have additional imaging tests done to screen for breast cancer,” Bennett said. “This could include MRI, ultrasound or contrast-enhanced mammograms.”

Such testing can be covered by insurance, but it can vary from plan to plan. So, it’s important to talk to your insurance company or health-care provider about specific costs.

Mammograms, and any additional screening tests, can help find breast cancer early when it can be more effectively treated. While breast cancer is the second most deadly cancer in women, when found and treated in its earliest stage, it can have a very high rate of survival, with over 99% of women living at least five years after being diagnosed.

No matter their level of breast density, all women should get a mammogram every year, with most starting at age 40. Women at higher risk of breast cancer may need to begin screening earlier, so it’s important to talk to a doctor about your risk factors for breast cancer. There are benefits of doing this at any age, but ideally it should be done by age 30.

Taking healthy steps to help prevent breast cancer is also important, regardless of breast density, Bennett said.

Around half of breast cancer cases could be avoided with healthy behaviors. Most of these may sound familiar, but they can have an important impact on risk – and even small changes can lead to large benefits over time. These healthy behaviors include:

  • Keeping weight gain in check
  • Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans
  • Not drinking alcohol
  • Being physically active
  • Staying smoke-free or getting smoke-free

Breast cancer touches many of us to some degree, whether it’s personally or through family or loved ones. A positive note, though, is that there are steps to help manage or lower the risk. And Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a great reminder of that and the benefits of working toward better breast health.

It’s your health. Take control.

For Your Health: How’re your knees? Tips for treating – even preventing – osteoarthritis

Scc 2025 For Your Health Digital Banner



When it comes to daily aches and pains, it’s not uncommon for our knees to be a main source. And while there can be many different long-term causes of such issues, osteoarthritis often is a reason why, especially as we age.

In knee osteoarthritis, the cartilage between knee bones wears down. In a healthy knee, this cartilage helps the joint move smoothly and also helps protect it. When that cartilage thins and wears down, problems can begin – and often get worse over time.

“Osteoarthritis can cause knee pain and stiffness, which can negatively impact a person’s activity level, risk of falling, mood and general quality of life,” said Dr. Abby Cheng, an orthopedic surgeon at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who also specializes in physiatry, which is the non-surgical treatment and rehabilitation of conditions like arthritis.

And these issues can impact us in ways we may not immediately think about. Pain and mobility problems from osteoarthritis can lead to days off work and lost income, and lower levels of physical activity can lead to increased risk of other chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

For a disease that can have such a wide-ranging impact on people’s lives, it’s also quite common. More than 30 million adults in the U.S. have some form of osteoarthritis, with the knee most often impacted. And while the disease usually affects older adults, about half of cases are in people of working age.

“Having weak leg muscles and being overweight or obese increases a person’s risk for knee osteoarthritis,” Cheng said. “Women, older adults, people with a prior knee injury and those with a family history of osteoarthritis are also more likely to have the condition.”

For people with osteoarthritis, healthy behaviors and other treatments can help deal with symptoms like pain and poor mobility – and may even slow worsening of the condition.

“Eating more plants and less processed or sugary food reduces inflammation in the body, which can reduce pain from osteoarthritis in all joints,” Cheng said. “Other common treatments for knee osteoarthritis include strengthening the thigh muscles, using knee braces, taking anti-inflammatory medications, getting cortisone and other injections, and sometimes having knee replacement surgery.”

Health-care providers can help patients put together plans for managing their condition as well as put them in touch with programs and other resources to get started and keep up with healthy behaviors over time.

And even small changes to behaviors can have important benefits when it comes to osteoarthritis, Cheng said. For example, in someone who is overweight, losing 10 pounds reduces stress on the knees by 40 pounds with each step, and that can significantly help with joint pain.

Many of these same approaches can also help lower the risk of developing osteoarthritis in the first place. This includes being physically active – including running, contrary to popular belief – keeping weight in check and eating a healthy diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables and low in processed and refined foods.

While osteoarthritis is a different type of disease than cancer or heart disease, it still has a major impact on the health, well-being and quality of life of millions of people. And like those other diseases, there are steps we can take to help lower our risk – and that of our families.

“Some people think that because a parent or grandparent had osteoarthritis, they will develop it too,” Cheng said. “And while it’s true that osteoarthritis can run in families, it doesn’t mean there’s nothing a person can do to successfully lower their risk of developing it.”

It’s your health. Take control.

For more on ways to lower the risk of colon and other cancers, visit 8ways.wustl.edu.

Drug bypasses suppressive immune cells to unleash immunotherapy

By recruiting the immune system to combat tumor cells, immunotherapy has improved survival rates, offering hope to millions of cancer patients. However, only about one in five people responds favorably to these treatments.

With a goal of understanding and addressing immunotherapy’s limitations, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that the immune system can be its own worst enemy in the fight against cancer. In a new study in mice, a subset of immune cells – type 1 regulatory T cells, or Tr1 cells – did its normal job of preventing the immune system from overreacting but did so while inadvertently restraining immunotherapy’s cancer-fighting power.

“Tr1 cells were found to be a heretofore unrecognized obstacle to immunotherapy’s effectiveness against cancer,” said senior author Robert D. Schreiber, PhD, the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pathology & Immunology, and director of the Bursky Center for Human Immunology & Immunotherapy at Washington University School of Medicine. “By removing or circumventing that barrier in mice, we successfully reenergized the immune system’s cancer-fighting cells and uncovered an opportunity to expand the benefits of immunotherapy for more cancer patients.”

The study is available in Nature. Schreiber is a research member of Siteman Cancer Center, which is based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Cancer vaccines represent a new approach to personalize cancer immunotherapy. Aimed at the mutant proteins specific to a patient’s tumor, such vaccines induce killer T cells to attack tumor cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed. Schreiber’s group previously showed that more effective vaccines also activate helper T cells, another immune cell type, that recruit and expand additional killer T cells to destroy the tumors. But when they tried to add increased amounts of the helper T cell target to supercharge the vaccine they found they generated a different type of T cell that inhibited rather than promoted tumor rejection.

“We tested the hypothesis that by increasing helper T cell activation we would induce enhanced elimination of the sarcoma tumors in mice,” said first author Hussein Sultan, PhD, an instructor in pathology & immunology. So he injected groups of tumor bearing mice with vaccines that activated killer T cells equally while triggering a different degree of helper T cell activation.

Much to the researchers’ surprise in this latest study, the vaccine meant to hyperactivate helper T cells produced the opposite effect and inhibited tumor rejection.

“We thought that more helper T cell activation would optimize elimination of the sarcoma tumors in mice,” Sultan said. “Instead, we found that vaccines containing high doses of helper T cell targets induced inhibitory Tr1 cells that completely blocked tumor elimination. We know that Tr1 cells normally control an overactive immune system, but this is the first time they have been shown to dampen its fight against cancer.”

Tr1 cells normally put the brakes on the immune system to prevent it from attacking the body’s healthy cells. But their role in cancer has not been seriously explored. Looking through previously published data, the researchers found that tumors from patients who had responded poorly to immunotherapy had more Tr1 cells compared with tumors of patients who had responded well. The number of Tr1 cells also increased in mice as tumors grew bigger, rendering the mice insensitive to immunotherapy.

To bypass the inhibiting cells, the researchers treated the vaccinated mice with a drug that enhances killer T cells’ fighting power. The drug, developed by biotechnology startup Asher Biotherapeutics, carries modifications in the immune-boosting protein called interleukin 2 (IL-2) that specifically revs up killer T cells and reduces the toxicity of unmodified IL-2 treatments. The additional boost from the drug overcame Tr1 cells’ inhibition and rendered the immunotherapy more effective.

“We are committed to personalizing immunotherapy and broadening its effectiveness,” said Schreiber. “Decades of researching basic tumor immunology have expanded our understanding of how to trigger the immune system to achieve the most robust antitumor response. This new study adds to our understanding of how to improve immunotherapy to benefit more people.”

As co-founder of Asher Biotherapeutics – which provided the mouse version of the modified IL-2 drugs – Schreiber is indirectly involved in the company’s clinical trials testing the human version of the drug as a monotherapy in cancer patients. If successful, the drug has the potential to be tested in combination with cancer treatment vaccines.