News Briefs – NOVEMBER 2021

BREAST CANCER  |  DEMENTIA PATIENT THERAPY   |  POWER OF NOSTALGIA  |  UTI THERAPY

 

Reducing Breast Cancer Mortality in Black Women

In the United States, women’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is one in eight. It is the cancer with the highest mortality rate for

women between the ages of 20 and 59. According to Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, African American women have a 31% breast cancer mortality rate. It is more fatal for this population than any other racial or ethnic group. These statistics speak to the need to reduce breast cancer mortality among Black women. 

One course of action comes from analyses of modern breast cancer screening strategies conducted by a team from the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET), funded by the National Cancer Institute. It concludes that if Black women were to begin mammography screening every other year starting at the age of 40, rather than following one traditional recommendation for women to start at 50, breast cancer deaths in this population would be reduced by 57 percent.

These analyses are the first to use modeling in an effort to achieve greater equity in outcomes and to reduce existing disparities for Black women. Beginning mammography at an earlier age would maintain the same ratio of benefits to harms that White women experience starting at the age of 50. The researchers point out that carefully tailoring interventions for specific racial groups can reduce health inequities.

The model accounted for breast density, cancer stage, and cancer subtype treatment effects. The analyses also accounted for differences in treatment attributable to racism, such as access to medication, delays in treatment, dose reductions, and discontinuation of treatment. The model projected the lifetime benefits in the number of years of life gained by detecting cancer early, breast cancer deaths averted, and mortality reduction compared with the harms of undergoing a larger number of mammograms and having false positive screening results. The work of the researchers points to the need to study screening practices across diverse populations.

 

Infrared Light Therapy Might Aid Dementia Patients

Infrared light has the potential to alleviate many of the serious problems people with dementia face. This finding comes out of two studies, one conducted at Durham University in the United Kingdom covering 14 healthy people over a four-week period, and another reported on in Aging and Disease that was conducted over eight weeks with 60 patients suffering from mild to moderate dementia. Both studies demonstrated improvements in memory, cognitive function, and processing skills.

Many of the dementia patients enrolled in the eight-week active treatment group reported improved sleep after the first seven days. Caregivers reported that patients had less anxiety, improved mood and energy, and a more positive daily routine after two to three weeks of treatment. Both studies reported no adverse effects from the low emission transcranial near-infrared light that was delivered by a special helmet device. The control groups used an identical sham device that did not emit infrared light.

Infrared light is outside the visible spectrum of the human eye but penetrates the skin and skull to reach the brain. The infrared light stimulates the mitochondria, increases oxygenation, and alleviates amyloid load that is implicated in the development and worsening of dementia. While both studies reported very promising results, the researchers stressed that further study is needed into the use and effectiveness of this therapy.

 

The Restorative Power of Nostalgia

Lockdowns and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the risk for loneliness. That doesn’t sound like good news, but there’s an unexpected upside: Surveys conducted in China, the United States, and the United Kingdom found that while loneliness leads to unhappiness, it also leads to nostalgia, which then leads to increased happiness. During moments of nostalgia, an individual feels warm and content. It connects the person back to themselves but also encourages them to surrounding themselves with others they’re close to them, which makes them more social and counteracts loneliness. 

When unhappy people reminisced about better, pre-pandemic times, such as weddings, birthdays, and graduations, they felt happier. Other recent research shows that nostalgia has a positive impact on people suffering from dementia, grief, and even the disorientation experienced by immigrants and refugees. 

For the three-country study, more than 3,700 people were surveyed and separated into nostalgia groups and control groups in a series of six studies. In one of the U.S. studies, participants in the nostalgia group were asked to write four words describing a specific nostalgic event from the past. Then they were asked to write freely for three minutes about how the past experiences made them feel. People in the control group had the same tasks but were asked to write about ordinary events. 

Participants in the nostalgia group reported slight but statistically significantly higher happiness levels. Some researchers have expressed a long-term goal of harnessing the restorative power of nostalgia as a form of therapy, which could have application for dying people and those grieving a loss. Nostalgia not only links people to their past, it helps them feel connected to a wider community and encourages them to build new social experiences.

The researchers questioned the persistence of nostalgia beyond the time of remembrance. They found that happiness faded after just a day or two, but when people were reminded to think about those special memories, the nostalgia-induced happiness lasted longer. The researchers remain optimistic that a form of nostalgia therapy can be developed, which might train people to recall special memories in moments they are feeling down or struggling with loss.

 

A Potential Non-Antibiotic Therapy to Treat UTIs

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common infection, leading to eight million clinic and emergency department visits a year. At least one in two women and one in 10 men will experience a UTI in their lifetime—and in nursing homes, as many as 30% of women over age 85 have had a UTI in the past 12 months. Among older adults and frail people, UTIs can lead to sepsis and death. Women tend to have recurrent UTIs, which can lead to chronic inflammation, extensive bladder damage, and chronic infection. Continued antibiotic treatment can negatively affect the microbiome—the “good bacteria” of the body—and stimulate the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which is a growing problem. 

Investigating the molecular sequence of events in UTIs led researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Washington University School of Medicine to find a potential treatment using an anti-inflammatory medicine called dimethyl fumarate (DMF). The study involved inducing a UTI in mice pretreated with DMF, which activates a regulatory pathway in the epithelial cells that line the bladder and fights against the bacteria that attach to the cells. DMF led to reduced inflammation and bacterial expulsion in the mice, which furthermore reduced bacterial load and cell damage during a UTI. 

The researchers concluded that future work is warranted to determine the utility of DMF and similar drugs to dampen bladder inflammation in women with recurrent UTIs. They also suggested further investigation into the impact of DMF on long-term bacterial persistence in the bladder.