By monitoring changes in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) among 30 patients treated with immunotherapies for metastatic non-small cell lung cancers, researchers were able to determine molecular response — the clearance of tumor genetic material in the bloodstream.
A national, multicenter clinical trial (BMT CTN 1507) of low-dose haploidentical (half-matched) bone marrow transplant to treat severe sickle cell disease found the treatment to be safe and curative for adults with serious sickle cell-related health complications.
Comparing PET scans of more than 90 adults with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say relatively lower levels of the so-called “happiness” chemical, serotonin, in parts of the brain of those with MCI may play a role in memory problems including Alzheimer’s disease.
A study of more than 50 babies through 2 yeard old in Africa, Asia, North America and South America has added substantially to evidence that giving antiretroviral therapy (ART) to newborns with HIV within the first days — rather than within weeks or months — of life can safely suppress amounts of HIV in the blood to undetectable levels. Findings of the study, which was co-led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center physician-scientist and researcher Deborah Persaud, M.D., and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network, were published Dec. 4 in the journal The Lancet HIV.
Dr. Kathryn Lemberg in her lab.
Credit: Norm Barker
Combining a pair of experimental drugs may help treat malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors with fewer harmful side effects, according to preliminary animal studies led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery.
In a new study using brain scans of former NFL athletes, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they found high levels of a repair protein present long after a traumatic brain injury such as a concussion takes place.
Thyrotoxicosis — excess thyroid hormone levels in the body — has been linked to an increased risk of cognitive disorders among older adults, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins Medicine.
November is National Epilepsy Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness about this common disorder of the nervous system, its challenges, symptoms and treatment options.
In what is believed to be the largest study of the association between BMI and postoperative complications following chest masculinization surgery, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender and Gender Expansive Health provide evidence that BMI is a poor metric for determining who should be approved for the gender transitioning procedure.
A new pathologic scoring system that accurately assesses how much lung tumor is left after a patient receives presurgical cancer treatments can be used to predict survival, according to new research led by investigators at the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Mark Foundation Center for Advanced Genomics and Imaging at the Johns Hopkins University.
A research team at Johns Hopkins Medicine has created and trained a machine learning model to calculate percent necrosis (PN) — or, what percentage of a tumor is “dead” and no longer active — in patients with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. The model’s calculation was 85% correct when compared to the results of a musculoskeletal pathologist.
With so many people in the U.S. at risk of developing diabetes, it is critical for the general public to understand that they can take action to prevent it, such as being more active and making small changes in their diet. Diabetes experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine are available to be interviewed throughout November about this important topic and to clear up common misconceptions surrounding this condition.
In a study that further investigates and hones the use of these bacterial-based cancer treatments, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine have developed a novel method to accurately image the way bacterial therapies move and how they target breast cancer.
In a mouse study designed to explore the impact of marijuana’s major psychoactive compound, THC, on teenage brains, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they found changes to the structure of microglia, which are specialized brain immune cells, that may worsen a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia. The
Tim Evans is participating in a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins Medicine, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, that is looking at a series of studies using the device in patients with severe speech and movement difficulties to regain some of the abilities lost due to neurological diseases.
The United States’ respiratory virus season — which typically lasts from October to April — is making its annual return. The flu, COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection and other respiratory illnesses tend to circulate more in the fall and winter months, which can lead to a surge in hospitalizations.
Three faculty members at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), an independent organization made up of leading professionals from multiple fields, such as public health, medicine, and natural, social and behavioral sciences
Halloween is a special and spooky time of the year filled with costumes, candy and trick-or-treating. As families prepare to celebrate, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center experts are available for interviews on a variety of topics and tips to help ensure a safe and fun Halloween season.
BALTIMORE — More than 880 people attended the 13th Henrietta Lacks Memorial Lecture on Saturday, Oct. 7, virtually and in person at The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Turner Auditorium.
A Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study of medical records concludes that delaying surgical treatment of the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in some children is associated with a higher risk of new tears in the meniscus and cartilage after the initial injury to the ligament, which helps join the thigh bone to the shin bone.
Johns Hopkins Medicine experts lead the longest-running clinic for people with dwarfism and other skeletal conditions. Started in the late 1950s, the clinic, now called the Kathryn and Alan C.
Liquid biopsies are blood tests that can serially measure circulating tumor DNA (cell-free DNA that is shed into the bloodstream by dying cancer cells). When used in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer undergoing immunotherapy, they may identify patients who could benefit from treatment with additional drugs, according to a phase 2 clinical trial in the U.S. and Canada. The trial is led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, BC Cancer and the Canadian Cancer trials Group (CCTG).
Using laboratory-grown cells from humans and genetically engineered mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have evidence that modifying a specific protein in immune white blood cells known as CD8+ T cells can make the cells more robust, potentially opening the door for better use of people’s own immune system T cells to fight cancer.
Treating cancer with immunotherapies known as an immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) prior to surgery (so-called neoadjuvant immunotherapy) has been a rapidly growing area of research, but the scientific community is just scratching the surface of what is possible, according to a review article co-authored by several current and former investigators from the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Scientists have long understood that parts of cells, called organelles, evolved to have certain shapes and sizes because their forms are closely related to how they function.
Donlin M. Long, founding chair of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery and a pioneer in the treatment of chronic pain, died Sept. 19. He was 89.
For the past three years, nurse Lauren Chelenza has cared for hundreds of children with cancer while working on the pediatric oncology inpatient unit at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. It’s a place she never imagined she’d be working 15 years ago, while going through her own cancer treatment.
Findings from a nationwide, multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggest that patients with COVID-19 have less chance of developing post-COVID conditions — commonly known as long COVID — if they receive early treatment with plasma from convalescent (recovered) COVID patients that contain antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Patients with stage 1–3 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) given a combination immunotherapy prior to surgery (neoadjuvant) had a better major pathological response (10% or less residual cancer) when the cancer was removed than those who took a single immunotherapy agent alone, according to results of a novel multicenter phase 2 NeoCOAST platform trial that included two investigators from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. The results were published online Sept. 14 in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital are shedding new light on the causes of Type 2 diabetes and offering a potential strategy for developing new therapies, or perhaps, even prevent Type 2 diabetes from developing.
September is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month. Johns Hopkins Medicine experts who specialize in sickle cell disease are available to speak with reporters about health equity issues related to sickle cell disease.
Researchers with the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and four other institutions have developed a molecular test to identify the presence of brain tumors by measuring abnormal genetic material shed by tumors and circulating in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). A description of the work was published Aug. 15 in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.
Thanks to a $24.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Johns Hopkins Medicine today announced plans to continue with a trial innovation center (TIC) that will promote improvements in the efficiency and quality of National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trials across multiple disease areas.
A two-year study found that spikes of post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 viral infections (commonly known as COVID-19 breakthrough cases) remain common, yet hospitalization rates have dramatically dropped following the first wave of the virus’ omicron subvariant.
A new study of mice and lab-grown human colon “organoids” indicates that an experimental drug developed by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers can substantially reduce symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in pre-clinical models.
Deep-learning technology developed by a team of Johns Hopkins engineers and cancer researchers can accurately predict cancer-related protein fragments that may trigger an immune system response. If validated in clinical trials, the technology could help scientists overcome a major hurdle to developing personalized immunotherapies and vaccines.
The T. Boone Pickens Foundation, established by the late, Texan innovative energy leader and philanthropist, is donating $20 million to the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Results of a long-term, federally funded study of cognitively healthy adults — most with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease — have added to evidence that low spinal fluid levels of a protein linked to learning and memory in mice may serve as an early predictor of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) years before symptoms appear.
A new review paper co-authored by two Johns Hopkins pain experts suggests that scrambler therapy, a noninvasive pain treatment, can yield significant relief for approximately 80%–90% of patients with chronic pain, and it may be more effective than another noninvasive therapy: transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). The write-up was published online July 13 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
New research in colorectal cancers directed by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center suggests that expression of transcription factors — proteins that help turn specific genes on or off by binding to nearby DNA — may play a central role in the degree of DNA methylation across the genome, contributing to the development of different subtypes of these cancers. Methylation is a process in which certain chemical groups attach to areas of DNA that guide genes’ on/off switches.
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Based on findings from a study published today in the journal, The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and three collaborating medical institutions suggest that people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who donate a kidney to other people living with HIV (PLWH) have a low risk of developing end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) or other kidney problems in the years following the donation.
Giving patients with operable pancreatic cancers a three-pronged combination immunotherapy treatment consisting of the pancreatic cancer vaccine GVAX, the immune checkpoint therapy nivolumab and urelemab, an anti-CD137 agonist antibody treatment, is safe, it increases the amount of cancer-killing immune system T cells in the tumors and it appears effective when given two weeks prior to cancer-removal surgery, according to new research directed by Johns Hopkins investigators.
In December 2021, 9-year-old Bryce Lampe of Edgewater, Maryland, began experiencing serious symptoms — a fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and body aches so intense he could barely move, causing him to sleep like a corpse, recalls his mother, Alexandra.
In a pre-clinical, proof-of-concept study from Johns Hopkins Medicine, researchers found that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a green tea compound with powerful antioxidant properties, could be promising for both treating and preventing uterine fibroids. Results of the study, first posted online May 25 in Scientific Reports, add to growing evidence that EGCG may reduce fibroid cell growth.