Gregorio Marañón University Hospital

A team of researchers at Stanford University (USA) has developed a technique that makes animal tissues transparent in vivo and reversibly. Based on a food dye, they have tested it topically on mice. According to the authors, who publish their research in the journal Science, “this technology could make veins more visible for blood collection or help in the early detection and treatment of cancer”.

The mental health of young people has deteriorated over the last two decades and is entering a dangerous phase, according to a new Commission by The Lancet Psychiatry. Several global factors are involved, including inaction on climate change, intergenerational inequality, and adversity linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Although breast cancer mortality has reduced by more than 40% in most high-income countries, a Lancet commission warns that one million people will die from the disease by 2040, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The authors highlight some of the knowledge gaps that persist about the disease, such as the lack of knowledge about the number of patients living with metastatic breast cancer and their needs, or the costs associated with breast cancer - including physical, psychological, social and economic costs - which, according to the authors, are immense but underestimated, and not adequately reflected in global health indicators. 

A study published in JAMA Network Open has followed 1,340 women with high-risk operable breast cancer. Analysing their lifestyles before, during and after treatment, the researchers conclude that those who followed a healthier pattern - including physical activity, no smoking, high fruit and vegetable intake, and low consumption of meat and sugary drinks - had a 37% lower risk of relapse and a 58% higher chance of survival than those who followed a worse pattern. Although the improvements in absolute risk were much smaller, the authors conclude that "lifestyle interventions may be a safe, inexpensive and feasible adjuvant strategy to delay and prevent recurrence and death from the world's most common cancer".

A study published today in the NEJM examines the risk of relapse in breast cancer patients who decide to pause endocrine therapy to try to become pregnant. The results show that temporarily stopping treatment does not confer an increased risk in the long term, but the authors warn of the need for further follow-up.

A phase 2 clinical trial has tested a type of immunotherapy based on oncolytic viruses in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of triple-negative breast tumours. The results are published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Physical activity is associated with significant reductions in depressive symptoms in children and adolescents, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Pediatrics that included 21 studies with 2,400 participants. The largest decreases in these symptoms were found in those aged 13 years and older.

In recent weeks, the UK Health Safety Agency has detected an unusual increase in infections with Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria. At least 13 children under the age of 15 have died from this pathogen, which is responsible for mild infections but also for more serious conditions such as invasive disease. The Spanish Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases has reported that there have been some deaths in Spain - the Community of Madrid has reported two deaths - and is analysing whether there has been an unusual increase in cases. 
 

A study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health shows that 98% of a cohort of trans adolescents in the Netherlands who started hormone treatment before adolescence continued to do so years later.