Young Researchers Award

Men’s health advocate to begin women’s health forums alongside fellow cancer survivor

2025-04-14 - 2025-04

Two-time cancer survivor Joe Ayers has hosted his forum, ‘Men Fighting for Health’, for nearly 10 years. The series is about creating a dialogue for men to openly talk about the emotional aspect of illness and directing them to health resources. He’s seen thousands of men flock to his monthly meetings, every second Wednesday of the month from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at The Impact Center.

That’s why he’s teaming up with breast cancer survivor Deborah Howard to bring a new forum centered around breast cancer and other women’s health issues. ‘Women Fighting for Health’ will meet every second Monday of the month from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at The Impact Center. Medical professionals will bring disease education. Breast cancer survivors will share their experience going through treatment and how it impacted their life.

“This needs to be a dialogue that happens among all women,” Howard said. “We need to advocate for ourselves, for our body, for our health … We need to be able to speak to the things that are affecting our bodies and we need to be able to find the words to help doctors diagnose us.”

Through organizing ‘Men Fighting for Health’, Ayers noticed more men prefer to attend the talks virtually, something he hopes will change in his new forum.

“With the men’s health, it’s kind of harder to get men out to talk about their health,” Ayers said. “With women, we’ve noticed a [stronger community culture] so we’re expecting a lot of women to come out, face-to-face, in person.”

Fat in common cooking oils linked to aggressive breast cancer

2025-04-25 - 2025-04

A recent studyhas identified a link between linoleic acid, a common fat contained in cooking oils, and aggressive breast cancer, but a professor says the findings require careful interpretation to 'avoid unnecessary alarm.'.Linoleic acid is an omega-6 fatty acid which is found in soybean, sunflower and corn oils.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York showed it can directly activate growth in triple-negative breast cancer cells - an aggressive form of the disease whichmakes up about 15% of all breast cancer cases.
In the new study, mice fed a high linoleic-acid diet developed larger tumours, suggesting dietary intake may exacerbate the cancer's growth. High linoleic acid levels were also found in blood samples from triple-negative breast cancer patients.
Justin Stebbing, Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, said: "It's also possible that the implications extend beyond triple negative breast cancer to other tumours such as prostate cancer."
Linoleic acid is essential for skin health, cell structure and inflammation regulation. Professor Stebbing told The Conversation : "Modern diets, which are rich in processed foods, ultraprocesed foods and seed oils, often provide excessive omega-6 fats, including linoleic acid, while lacking omega-3s, which are found in fish, flaxseeds and walnuts.

"This imbalance could promote chronic inflammation, which is a well known contributor to cancer and other diseases. The study therefore suggests that linoleic acid may directly drive cancer growth in specific contexts."
Professor Stebbing said earlier studies had found no clear link between dietary linoleic acid and overall breast cancer risk, orthat linoleic acid was even protective against breast cancer, adding that this 'demonstrates why it's important to consider everything in context'.

He said: "While this new study highlights a plausible mechanism linking linoleic acid to cancer growth, it does not prove that cooking oils cause breast cancer-far from it. Other factors, such as genetics, overall diet and environmental exposures, play significant roles.
"The findings do not warrant blanket avoidance of seed oils but suggest moderation and selectivity, especially for high-risk individuals. Many oils such as olive oil contain less linoleic acid and higher monounsaturated or saturated fats, which are more stable at high heat.

STIs Pose Significant Threat to Fertility, Global Women's Health

2025-05-01 - 2025-05

Sexually transmitted diseases are significant threats to infertility and the overall health of women within typical reproductive age ranges, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.1

"Infertility, especially infection-induced infertility, has become a critical issue in public health, significantly affecting family structure, marital stability, and social dynamics,"wrote authors of the study."In recent years, there has been an increase in the prevalence of infertility, with cases increasingly occurring at younger ages."

According to WHO, approximately 1 in 6 patients around the world experience infertility, which is equivalent to 17.5% of the global adult population.2 These rates, however, are unsurprisingly worse among women impacted by STIs. Researchers provided the example of how chlamydia and gonorrhea can cause increased risk of tubal factor infertility (TFI) and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)-both major determinants of female infertility.

Due to the increased risk of infectious diseases among women, because of the structural characteristics of their urogenital anatomy, researchers wanted to better understand how infections, most notably STIs, globally impact the maternal outcomes of women over a 30-year period.

"Infection-induced infertility remains an under-recognized issue that warrants further research, with no comprehensive analysis available on its global burden," they continued.1 "The 2021 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) offers a comprehensive collection of resources, including 371 injuries and diseases from 811 subnational, as well as regions 204 countries and territories. This research aimed to report the global impact and spatiotemporal patterns of infertility attributable to infections, analyzing data by age, socio-demographic index (SDI) region, and country to identify high-risk populations and inform strategies to protect female fertility.”

Exploring data from 164 countries between the years 1990 and 2021, the GBD captured the age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR) and age-standardized years living with disease (ASYR) among the study participants.

After data collection, researchers identified a jump in infertility rates attributed to infections, increasing by nearly 8 million cases over the 31-year period. Indeed, infertility cases were just under 11.3 million in 1990 but jumped to 19.15 million by 2021. Furthermore, ASPR increased from 839.52 to 982.37 per 100,000, while years living with disease rose from 62.81 thousand to 106.69 thousand throughout the study period.

Infertility has become a global health issue, impacting not only reproductive function but also overall health. Based on the latest GBD 2021 data, our research presents a detailed analysis of the burden of infection-related infertility, examining time trends at national, regional and global levels," wrote the authors. "From 1990 to 2021, global ASPR and ASYR for infection-related infertility increased. Significant geographic differences emerged, with low SDI regions bearing the highest burden but showing improvements over time.”

Compared with low SDI regions, those in middle-to-high-income locations initially had the lowest disease burden. However, as low-SDI regions saw improvements over time, middle-to-high regions had significant increases in disease burden

Avutometinib Triplet Active in Resistant HR+/HER2- Breast Cancer

2025-05-07 - 2025-05

A combination regimen of avutometinib (VS-6766), abemaciclib (Verzenio), and fulvestrant (Faslodex) demonstrated early clinical activity and manageable safety in patients with hormone receptor (HR)–positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer following disease progression on CDK4/6 inhibitors, according to phase 1 findings (NCT05608252) presented at the 2025 American Association of Clinical Research (AACR) Annual Meeting.

The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was determined using a Bayesian Optimal Interval design; dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) were reported in 3 of 4 patients at the highest dose level. No DLTs were observed among the 9 patients treated at the intermediate dose level. The recommended phase 2 dosing regimen was established as abemaciclib at 100 mg orally twice daily, avutometinib at 3.2 mg orally twice weekly, and fulvestrant at 500 mg intramuscularly every 28 days.

Treatment-related adverse effects (TRAEs) were predominantly grade 1 or 2; no grade 4 or 5 effects were observed. The most frequent TRAEs in the safety population (n = 16) included increased creatine phosphokinase (CPK) levels (50%), neutropenia (50%), diarrhea (44%), fatigue (44%), anemia (25%), and rash (19%). Grade 3 TRAEs were limited to increased CPK levels (19%), neutropenia (6%), diarrhea (6%), rash (19%), and mucositis (13%).

Regarding efficacy, the confirmed ORR per RECIST 1.1 was 13.3% (n = 2/15), which included 1 complete response and 1 partial response. Stable disease was observed in 46.7% of patients, and the clinical benefit rate at week 24 was 26.7%. Progressive disease occurred in 6 patients (40%), and 1 patient was not evaluable.

“The combination of avutometinib, abemaciclib, and fulvestrant showed a manageable safety profile and preliminary efficacy in HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer resistant to CDK4/6 inhibitors,” lead study author Adrienne G. Waks, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston Massachusetts, and colleagues wrote in a poster presentation of the data.

Phase 1 Study Design
The phase 1 study enrolled patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who experienced disease progression on a prior CDK4/6 inhibitor. Enrollment was limited to patients with measurable or evaluable disease, and prior treatment with fulvestrant was permitted but not mandatory.

Planned dose levels included avutometinib at 2.4 mg, 3.2 mg, and 4.0 mg orally twice weekly on a 3-weeks-on/1-week-off schedule; abemaciclib at 50 mg, 100 mg, or 150 mg orally twice daily; and fulvestrant at 500 mg intramuscularly once every 28 days.

Seventeen patients were registered to the study, of whom 16 received at least one dose of study treatment and were evaluable for safety. One patient was replaced following withdrawal prior to DLT assessment.

Primary end points focused on identifying the MTD of the combination. Secondary end points included safety, pharmacokinetic analyses, ORR, CBR, and progression-free survival (PFS) per RECIST 1.1 criteria.

Baseline Patient Characteristics
The median age at enrollment was 60.5 years (range, 37-71), and all 16 patients were female. All patients identified as White. ECOG performance status was 0 in 93% of patients and 1 in 6.3%.

At initial diagnosis, 31.3% of patients had stage II disease, 25% had stage IV disease. The remainder were diagnosed at stage I (12.5%) or stage III (6.3%). A disease-free interval greater than 2 years from primary diagnosis was observed in 62.5% of patients, whereas 12.5% relapsed within 2 years. De novo metastatic disease was present in 25% of the cohort.

Visceral involvement was observed in 31.3% of patients, with liver metastases present in 18.8% and lung or pleural involvement in 12.5%.

All patients had prior exposure to CDK4/6 inhibitors, most commonly in the metastatic setting (93%). Palbociclib (Ibrance) was the most frequently used agent (68.8%), followed by ribociclib (Kisqali) and abemaciclib (19% each). The median duration on CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy was 18.8 months (range, 9.1-78), and 81.3% of patients had received at least 12 months of treatment with a CDK4/6 inhibitor.

Patients received a median of 2 prior lines of endocrine therapy in the metastatic setting (range, 1-5); prior fulvestrant was administered to 43.8% of patients. Use of selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs) was reported in 62.5%, and 31.3% had received prior therapy targeting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.

Chemotherapy or antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) exposure in the metastatic setting was limited, with 75% of patients receiving no prior cytotoxic agents. The remaining 25% had received either 1 or 2 prior lines of chemotherapy or an ADC.

Preliminary Efficacy Data
The median PFS was 3.6 months (95% CI, 2.1-not reached) at a median follow-up of 9.8 months. A waterfall plot of target lesion changes demonstrated measurable tumor shrinkage in a subset of patients, supporting biological activity of the regimen. Swimmer plots further illustrated treatment duration and best response across the cohort.

Pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles of avutometinib and abemaciclib on days 1 and 15 of cycle 1 indicated consistent drug exposure with no evidence of adverse interaction, and concentrations remained within the expected therapeutic range.

Marengo Doses First Patient in STARt-002 Clinical Trial Evaluating First-in-Class Dual T Cell Agonist, Invikafusp Alfa in Combination with TROP2-directed ADC Trodelvy in Metastatic Breast Cancer

2025-05-08 - 2025-05

STARt-002 is a Phase 1b/2 clinical study assessing invikafusp alfa in combination with Gilead's Trodelvy® for HR+/HER2- and TNBC breast cancer patients across leading U.S. and Canadian breast cancer centers
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Marengo Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering novel approaches to precision T cell activation, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in its STARt-002 clinical trial. The Phase 1b/2 study evaluates the safety and efficacy of Marengo's lead clinical T cell agonist in combination with Trodelvy® (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy), Gilead's approved TROP2-directed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), in patients with metastatic breast cancer (mBC).
"The growing body of evidence supporting combinations of ADCs and immunotherapies is encouraging, including the recent success of the ASCENT-04 trial combining sacituzumab govitecan with pembrolizumab in metastatic TNBC," said Steven Isakoff, M.D., Ph.D., Medical Oncologist and Director of Breast Cancer Clinical Research at Massachusetts General Hospital. "Invikafusp alfa is a novel bi-specific immunotherapy designed as a dual T cell agonist, and the recent AACR presentation highlighting its single-agent activity in PD-1 resistant tumors is particularly compelling. Coupled with preclinical evidence of efficacy in breast cancer models, this combination with an ADC offers a promising and innovative approach to expanding immunotherapy options for patients with both HR+/HER2- and triple-negative breast cancers."

STARt-002 (NCT06827613) is a Phase 1b/2 trial, beginning with a run-in phase to determine the optimal tolerated combined dose of the two agents, followed by dose expansion in two patient cohorts: metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) and hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative (HR+/HER2−) metastatic breast cancer.

The study is currently enrolling patients at three leading North American cancer centers: Massachusetts General Hospital, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, with additional sites expected to join soon.

"As presented in recent SITC, EMSO IO and AACR meetings, invikafusp clearly demonstrates promising monotherapy activity in PD-1 resistant tumors including MSS CRC and PD-1 negative NSCLC," said Kevin Chin, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Marengo Therapeutics. "These data reinforce our belief that invikafusp could serve as a best-in-class immunotherapy backbone for multiple tumor types, particularly when paired with ADCs in immunologically cold tumors such as breast cancer. We are honored to partner with world-class clinical investigators to explore this promising combination for patients with high unmet needs."

About Marengo Therapeutics

Marengo Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a first-in-class pipeline of novel TCR-targeting antibodies designed to selectively modulate disease-driving and protective T cell subsets. With its proprietary STAR™, TriSTAR™, and MSTAR™ platforms, Marengo is advancing precision immunotherapies that harness the body's T cell repertoire to provide durable responses against cancer and autoimmune diseases. Learn more at www.marengotx.com.

About the STAR™ Platform

Marengo's STAR™ (Selective T cell Activation Repertoire) platform is a proprietary multispecific antibody-fusion technology targeting germline-encoded TCR Vβ regions fused with T cell co-stimulatory domains. This novel approach enables non-clonal activation and selective expansion of tumor-reactive T cells, driving durable anti-tumor immune responses.

About Invikafusp Alfa (STAR0602)

Invikafusp alfa (STAR0602) is the first clinical candidate emerging from Marengo's STAR™ platform. It selectively targets a common, tumor-associated Vβ T cell subset and combines non-clonal TCR activation with T cell co-stimulation in a single molecule. This unique mechanism promotes the expansion of effector memory T cells with anti-tumor activity. Invikafusp alfa is currently being evaluated in a Phase I/II clinical trial as monotherapy (STARt-001 trial) and in combination (STARt-002 trial) settings.

Sybil Shainwald, lawyer and women's health activist, 1928-2025

2025-05-10 - 2025-05

When, in 1962, Sybil Shainwald applied for a place at Columbia University's law school she was roundly rebuffed. The dean said that admitting her would deprive a young man, who might have a 40-year career ahead of him, even though she was already undertaking a doctorate in history at the university and the two departments operated a joint PhD/JD programme. In fact, after finally graduating in law in her late forties, Shainwald, who has died just short of her 97th birthday, bested most of the men admitted in her stead in both longevity and impact, scoring a string of landmark victories over pharmaceutical companies on behalf of women who had been irreparably damaged by ill-tested drugs and devices. As Shainwald drily put it in an interview with Veteran Feminists of America to mark her 90th birthday: “Luckily, I’ve been practising for more than 40 years.” Anthony Crowell, dean of New York Law School which gave her the welcome she had been denied at Columbia and where she became a long-serving trustee, said right up to the final weeks of her life, “she was still getting calls from potential clients”. Raised in Brooklyn in 1928, Sybil Schwartz, as she was then, moved to Virginia at the age of 16 to attend college at William & Mary. The choice of an institution in a state so culturally dissonant with her home borough signalled a willingness to forge her own path that characterised the rest of her life, suggests Crowell: “She was somebody who understood how to very carefully but very, very successfully step out of bounds . . . and to shape a world that she could have great influence and success in.” After college she combined marriage and raising four children with a career, teaching in public schools and then working in the consumer movement. But after gaining her law degree through evening study at 48 — one of just seven women in a 169-strong class — she struggled to find a niche and had to join a firm unpaid. “I asked if I could take space at a law firm that had only hired men. They said ‘yes, we don’t usually do that, but we’ll do it for you’. And, of course, they called me sweetheart,” she recalled. A determination to challenge this power imbalance found expression in her work defending women harmed by the pharmaceutical industry. Shainwald believed it had frequently acted without any regard for safety, particularly in relation to contraceptive implants and devices. “We pay with our tax dollars for the research and with our lives for the results,” she told her interviewer. One battle concerned the Dalkon Shield, a cheap intrauterine device claimed to prevent pregnancy in women too “forgetful” to take the pill. In a speech in 2016, she said: “Nine months after marketing the device, the company first began a two-year baboon safety study. One in every eight baboons died, and 30 per cent suffered uterine perforation. The results were never made public.”
Her most significant triumphs concerned DES, a drug given to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage which turned out to be a carcinogen. She won a groundbreaking case against Eli Lilly on behalf of Joyce Bichler, who at the age of 17 had developed clear cell adenocarcinoma of the vagina and had to have all her reproductive organs and most of her sex organs removed. Her mother had taken the drug. The men in her firm had been reluctant to take the case to trial, she recalled. It had “turned out to be the most important and pivotal case in the women’s health movement. It brought to light the callous nature of the pharmaceutical industry and is the most egregious example of the industry’s treatment of women”. Her advocacy, pursued over many years, on behalf of DES victims led to one of the achievements that she was most proud of: overturning in New York state a law that said under-21s could not bring cases. She was also instrumental in expanding the statute of limitations for women’s health cases in New York. Shanna Swan, a reproductive epidemiologist who acted as an expert witness in some of the cases she brought and became a close friend, said Shainwald was, first and foremost “a very ardent, passionate feminist”. This even extended to the art she amassed. “She always collected only art by women and of women,” Swan said. Despite the bitter battles she waged with the pharma industry over decades, Swan said she did not believe Shainwald ever felt daunted or afraid: “I don’t think much threatened Sybil, honestly — she was really tough. And she knew she was right.”

Message on National Women's Health Week, 2025

2025-05-12 - 2025-05

During National Women's Health Week, we promote and support the health and well-being of our Nation's mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, and friends.

From my first day in office, my Administration has worked to protect women and girls from gender extremism and has brought common sense and biological reality back to America. Moreover, the Make America Healthy Again Commission was established to address the root causes of our Nation's health crisis—from poor nutrition and chronic diseases to preventable conditions – issues impacting women across the nation. By advancing food transparency, promoting physical fitness, and restoring health education, we are working to give women, and all Americans, stronger futures and better quality of life.

My Administration is confronting the high cost of healthcare, which places a tremendous toll on American families. We are working to improve price transparency, stop surprise billing, and ensure patients have clear information about their coverage before receiving care. Historic steps have been taken to lower prescription drug prices, including capping the cost of insulin and expanding access to low-cost generics. By holding providers accountable and putting patients first, we are lowering costs, improving care delivery, and restoring fairness to the American healthcare system.

This week, we reaffirm our commitment to improve women's health so that they may live fuller and healthier lives, ensuring that all generations of American women thrive and continue to drive the success of our Nation.

Women's brain health and brain capital

2025-05-12 - 2025-05

Brain capital, broadly defined as a form of capital that prioritizes brain skills and brain health, is urgently required. Integrating social, emotional and cognitive brain resources is a great asset for a wealthy and healthy society. Nevertheless, there is little investment in women's brain health on a global scale. Women, on average, spend nine additional years in poor health compared with men, which hinders their participation in education, the workforce and society at large. This Perspective highlights the crucial intersection between investing in women's brain health and the concept of 'brain capital.' Here we argue that addressing the women's health gap could potentially increase the global economy by US $1 trillion in annual incremental gross domestic product. Furthermore, we hope this article will serve as a springboard to stimulate discussion and concrete stakeholder actions toward closing the women's brain health gap and will add to the growing discourse on sex- and gender-specific healthcare and its impact on global community well-being.

New hope for patients with breast cancer gene

2025-05-13 - 2025-05

'I'm cancer free'
Jackie Van Bochoven, 59, from Cambridgeshire, has a family history of breast cancer and carries a faulty copy of the BRCA1 gene, which significantly raises her risk of the disease during her lifetime.

She was diagnosed with an aggressive breast tumour in 2019 and took part in the trial.

"When I had the diagnosis I was completely shocked," she told BBC News.

"Six years on, I'm well and cancer free. It's amazing."

Jackie's mother and sister both had breast cancer. She has three daughters and the eldest, Danielle, also carries the inherited BRCA gene mutation.

"For my future generations, if they have got the BRCA gene, it is a new hope," Jackie said.

Around one in 400 people carry mutations in either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

Cancer Research UK estimates about seven in 10 women with changes in these genes will develop breast cancer, compared to about one in seven women without these mutations.

For men with BRCA mutations, the risks of developing breast cancer are much lower.

Olaparib is the first targeted drug treatment for cancers with mutations in the BRCA genes and is given as a tablet. It works by stopping cancer cells from being able to repair their DNA by blocking a protein called PARP, which causes the cancerous cells to die.

The trial, named Partner, took place at 23 sites in England, Scotland and Wales. Before surgery, 39 women with early stage breast cancer were given olaparib, also known as Lynparza, together with chemotherapy.

They started olaparib tablets 48 hours after each chemotherapy infusion. After three years, all had survived.

By contrast there were six deaths among 45 women in the study who received chemotherapy before surgery but did not get olaparib.

Prof, Jean Abraham, a consultant at Addenbrooke's and professor of precision breast cancer medicine at the University of Cambridge, who led the trial, described the results as were "really exciting".

"It is rare that you see 100% survival at 36 months for this subtype of breast cancer. We're incredibly excited about the potential of this new approach."

The findings have the potential to be applied to other BRCA-related cancers, such as ovarian, prostate and pancreatic."

Prof Abraham said a larger, multinational trial is planned next year, involving some 600 patients. She predicted that if the findings are repeated, it will lead to a major change in clinical practice for more than 1,200 patients a year in the UK.

Currently patients are given olaparib for a year after surgery, whereas on the trial patients took the tablets over 12 weeks pre-surgery, and at half the dose.

Prof Abraham said: "From a cost perspective, it would save the NHS a considerable amount of money because it's a fraction of the time and dose of the drug."

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: "While this research is still in its infancy, it is an exciting discovery that adding olaparib at a carefully-timed stage of treatment can potentially give patients with this specific type of breast cancer more time with their loved ones."

Although the trial involved only women, Prof Abraham said the olaparib results would also apply to the much smaller number of men with the BRCA mutation who get breast cancer.

The trial was funded by Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca, and was supported by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre and Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust (ACT).

International Conference on Women Health and Breast Cancer

Young Scientist Award

womenhealth@globalmeetx.net

support@globalmeetx.net

+44-7723-860457