Radiation has been a core part of cancer treatment for generations. But over the last couple of years, there’s been a surge of interest in a new type of treatment. Radiopharmaceuticals can more precisely target cancerous cells by fusing radioactive isotopes with a tool that will guide the compound to cancer cells like a missile, ideally obliterating the diseased cells while leaving the surrounding area relatively unscathed.

It’s an approach with a ton of potential, but as more and more startups begin to focus in, the challenges ahead are becoming apparent. Developing these types of medications requires a familiarity with radioactive materials that few people in the drug industry have. Then, to actually provide the treatment, teams of specially trained physicians, nurses, and support staff need to measure the right doses of decaying isotopes and properly handle radioactive materials.

There’s a significant shortage of these experts, according to insiders. And if workforce issues can’t be addressed, it could limit or even upend the rise of this field of medicine. Read more from STAT’s Allison DeAngelis.

Depression could make your period worse, LOL

From the “cosmically unfair” department: Depression could increase the chances of someone experiencing dysmenorrhea, the scientific word for bad period pain. That’s according to a study published last week in Briefings in Bioinformatics. While previous research has identified a correlation between the conditions, there’s been little research on possible causation.

Researchers in this study analyzed data from about 800,000 European people and 8,000 East Asian people from previous genome-wide association studies. To attempt to understand causality, they used something called Mendelian randomization, which analyzes genetic variation to estimate the effects of certain modifiable factors. 

Sleeplessness was a key connecting factor that could make period pain even worse, the researchers found. While the study provides early evidence that depression could worsen period pain, they also note that more research in more diverse populations is needed.

Radiopharma needs way more talent

There’s been considerable interest in radiopharmaceuticals lately. These cutting-edge therapies use radioactive isotopes to precisely target cancer cells. But the field’s facing a severe talent shortage, both on the development side and also in the medical facilities that administer the treatments, STAT’s Allison DeAngelis reports. It takes specialized skills to administer these radioactive medicines, and relatively few professionals possess them.

“There’s now just a huge interest. And so we need, whilst these new drugs… come in, we need to expand the workforce to continue that work,” said one radiochemist at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Read more.

cancerA tumor-disrupting device improves pancreatic cancer survivalNovocure said its electrical field medical device extended median survival by just over two months compared to a standard treatment in a Phase 3 study of patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.Statistically, the cancer device, known as Optune, reduced the risk of death by 18% — achieving the primary goal of the study, called PANOVA-3. “PANOVA-3 is the first and only Phase 3 trial to demonstrate a statistically significant benefit in overall survival specifically in unresectable, locally advanced pancreatic cancer, and is Novocure’s third positive Phase 3 clinical trial in the last two years,” Novocure Chief Medical Officer Nicolas Leupin said in a statement.The company intends to use the study results to seek regulatory approvals, it said. “The study was a success, but a two-month survival benefit is not a home run,” said Anirban Maitra, a pancreatic cancer expert at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

from AXIOS:

What Trump 2.0 means for bird flu

By Tina Reed

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios

The sluggish federal response to the H5N1 bird flu outbreak could become even more disjointed and ineffective in the second Trump administration — if it isn’t abandoned altogether, some public health officials warn.Why it matters: HHS secretary-designate Robert F. Kennedy’s calls for a break in infectious disease research could leave the nation unprepared for a host of pandemic threats by discouraging vaccines and shortchanging surveillance.Those concerns have grown as President-elect Trump stocks his health agencies with a host of controversial picks, including NIH director-designate Jay Bhattacharya and former Rep. Dave Weldon, a vaccine skeptic in line to head the CDC.“The current hires have no subject matter expertise in it, and what I don’t know is what happens at the next level down,” Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher at the Baylor College of Medicine, pointing to vows of sweeping reforms, including firing career employees, at federal health agencies.Even Trump first-term FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb has sounded alarms about the reemergence of long-vanquished diseases if overall vaccination rates keep falling.”What I worry about is that we’re at a tipping point where we’re going to start seeing epidemics of diseases that’ve long been vanquished. And God forbid we see polio reemerge in this country,” Gottlieb said on CNBC last week.State of play: The already-limited testing and tracking of bird flu is stoking many fears of what’s to come, even though the H5N1 virus has been slow to transmit easily to and between humans.The Biden administration CDC only last month recommended expanded testing of farm workers after new evidence showed previously undetected cases of H5N1 in humans.Public health officials worry the next administration will give surveillance of disease spread short shrift while pursuing alternative cures and questioning vaccine safety.Read more

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