Researchers at the University of Washington reported in the May 31, 2021, issue of Nature Medicine that artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms meant to recognize COVID-19 infections based on chest X-rays picked up on confounders, selecting “shortcuts” such as patient age or positioning in the X-ray as a basis for their predictions.

At the 2021 virtual annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), results of the VISION trial testing the addition of Novartis AG’s radiopharmaceutical Lutetium-177-PSMA-617 (Lutetium-PSMA) to individualized standard-of-care regimens in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer improved both overall survival and radiographic progression-free survival.

At the 2021 virtual annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), results of the VISION trial testing the addition of Novartis AG's' radiopharmaceutical lutetium-177-PSMA-617 to individualized standard-of-care regimens in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer improved both overall survival and radiographic progression-free survival.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases, and the role of ?-synuclein accumulation and the subsequent death of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain have long been recognized as key steps in the disease. Progress in understanding genetic risk factors, meanwhile, has uncovered multiple genetic risk factors. Even though aging is the single biggest risk factor for PD, there are versions of the disorder that affect children.

The American Society for Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) virtual annual meeting began June 3 with the release of late-breaking abstracts, including LBA-1 on “Olympia: A phase 3, multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of adjuvant olaparib after (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations and high risk HER2-negative primary breast cancer.”

The Research to Accelerate Cures and Equity for Children Act is leading to deep changes in pediatric cancer research. Passed in 2017 and fully implemented in 2020, the RACE Act requires companies to investigate targeted drugs for adult cancers in pediatric cancers as well “when the molecular target of the drugs are substantially related to a pediatric cancer.”

With the advent of targeted therapies, cancer drugs have made strides in safety as well as efficacy. Still, because of the life threatening nature of the illness, safety is less of a focus in cancer drugs than other therapy types.

Collectively, lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) are caused by malfunctions in metabolic enzymes in the lysosome system. Depending on which enzyme is missing, toxic metabolites accumulate. While the LSDs are highly heterogenous – even within one disease, presentation can vary widely – neurodegeneration is a common feature in these disorders.

With the advent of targeted therapies, cancer drugs have made strides in safety as well as efficacy. Still, because of the life threatening nature of the illness, safety is less of a focus in cancer drugs than other therapy types.