BackgroundDepressive symptoms are common among patients with cancer and can substantially impair quality of life, treatment adherence and overall well-being. Although exercise has been increasingly recognised as a promising non-pharmacological strategy for alleviating depression in oncology settings, existing evidence has focused predominantly on breast cancer, with limited attention to lung and digestive cancers. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effects of exercise interventions on depressive symptoms in adults with lung and digestive cancer.MethodsA systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library and Scopus from database inception to March 2026. Randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of exercise interventions on depressive symptoms in adults with lung or digestive cancer were included. The primary outcome was depressive symptoms measured using validated instruments. Subgroup analyses were performed according to intervention format, exercise type and training frequency. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool version 1.ResultsEight randomized controlled trials were included in the meta-analysis. Baseline analysis showed no significant difference in depressive symptoms between the exercise and control groups before intervention. Post-intervention meta-analysis demonstrated that exercise significantly reduced depressive symptoms compared with control conditions (SMD = -0.45, P = 0.02), Although substantial heterogeneity was observed. Individually delivered programmes, walking-based exercise and moderate-frequency training (3–5 times per week) showed numerically larger effect estimates.ConclusionsExercise interventions may reduce depressive symptoms in adults with lung and digestive cancer and represent a promising adjunctive strategy for psychological care in these populations. Although subgroup differences were not statistically significant, certain intervention characteristics may be associated with greater benefit. Further large-scale, high-quality randomized trials are needed to confirm these findings and to establish the optimal exercise prescription for reducing depressive symptoms in adults with lung and digestive cancer.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD420261336578.
The efficacy of acupuncture for depression-associated chronic pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis
ObjectiveThe comorbidity of pain and depression is prevalent, adding difficulty to the treatment of depression. This systematic review with meta-analysis aims to determine the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in treating depression-associated chronic pain (DACP).MethodsA comprehensive search was conducted across four international databases, namely PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library, along with four regional databases, including Wanfang Data, CNKI, VIP database, and SinoMed, from inception to March 2025. The Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool was utilized to assess risk of bias in the included research articles, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluations system was employed to evaluate the certainty of evidence. Meta-regression analysis was performed to explore the influence of patient age and treatment duration on the study results, and sensitivity analysis was used to verify the stability of the results. The publication bias was evaluated when the number of included studies exceeded ten. All data analyses were completed using Stata15.1.ResultsTen randomized controlled trials involving 761 participants were included. Acupuncture combined with conventional medications was more effective than medication alone in improving depressive symptoms (standardized mean difference (SMD): -0.72; 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.91 to -0.53; P < 0.01) and reducing pain (SMD: -0.85; 95% CI: -1.36 to -0.34; P < 0.01). Head-to-head comparisons revealed that acupuncture is similar to medication in improving the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores (SMD: -0.05; 95% CI: -0.61 to 0.51; P > 0.05) and the Visual Analogue Scale scores (SMD: -0.33; 95% CI: -0.94 to 0.29; P > 0.05), suggesting no statistically significant difference between the two treatments. In contrast, acupuncture was associated with a better safety profile (relative risk: 0.40; 95% CI: 0.27 to 0.60). Further subgroup analysis found the advantage of a 4-week acupuncture treatment in improving depressive symptoms, while longer-term treatment tended to be more effective in relieving pain.ConclusionsAcupuncture appears to have comparable antidepressant and analgesic effects to conventional oral medications. When applied as an adjuvant therapy, acupuncture may enhance the clinical efficacy of monotherapy for DACP. Regarding treatment duration, a 4-week acupuncture intervention may be superior to a longer cycle (> 4 weeks) in alleviating depressive symptoms, while long-term acupuncture treatment may provide greater benefits in analgesia.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO, identifier CRD420251026454.
Incretin therapies, nutrition and food insecurity in the UK
Nature Medicine, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04426-2
Incretin therapies, nutrition and food insecurity in the UK
Soon…the First Organ-on-a-Chip Qualified Drug Development Tool
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Historical data indicate that animal models are not ideal for the determination of the efficacy and safety of human therapeutics. Ninety percent of drugs that pass animal studies do not receive regulatory approval. Improving predictive accuracy in preclinical tests is paramount, thus the movement toward more human-relevant models.
The goal to reduce the use of animals in preclinical testing changes testing paradigms. In April 2025, the U.S. FDA’s Roadmap to Reducing Animal Testing in Preclinical Safety Studies outlined a strategic, stepwise approach to replace animal testing with scientifically validated new approach methodologies (NAMs), such as organ-on-a-chip systems, computational modeling, and advanced in vitro assays. FDA Modernization Acts 2.0 and 3.0 facilitated this activity by empowering the agency to accept NAMs in lieu of animal studies.
Meanwhile, legislation from the EU, Directive 2010/63/EU, requires marketing authorization holders to integrate the 3Rs (Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement) and welfare standards for the treatment of animals in all aspects of the development, manufacture, and testing of medicines. In addition, last year, the U.K. delivered an expedited phase-out plan for animal use.
But it all began in 2020 with the launch of the FDA Innovative Science and Technology Approaches for New Drugs (ISTAND) pilot program to provide a pathway to qualify novel drug development tools (DDTs) that did not fit within the agency’s existing qualification programs. Qualified DDTs are defined as having a proven, specific use and can be incorporated in any drug development program for a particular context of use.
The pilot has advanced to a permanent DDT qualification program. To date, ISTAND has accepted eight submissions–two tools that assess preclinical safety without using animals, two methods involving tissues, and one statistical approach.
The rigorous ISTAND process
In a 2022 Communications Medicine study to test drug-induced liver injury (DILI), 870 human Emulate Liver-Chips created with cells from three different human donors were challenged with 27 different drugs. The human Liver-Chip predicted human DILI with 87% sensitivity and 100% specificity, ~7 to 8 times more accurate than the comparable animal models.1 These results prompted Emulate to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) to ISTAND in 2024.
ISTAND accepted Emulate’s LOI for the first organ-on-a-chip DDT to predict DILI. The human Liver-Chip S1 was proposed to assess the risk of small molecule candidate drugs inducing DILI in adults to create human-relevant data for candidate drug IND submission.
The LOI acceptance was the entry point in a three-step rigorous qualification process. ISTAND required Emulate to qualify the in vivo-like physiological functionality of the Liver-Chip S1, and quantify its ability to predict DILI risk through changes in tissue morphology as well as alterations in albumin and alanine transaminase (ALT) protein concentrations when the chips were challenged with toxic drugs administered across eight concentrations.
Now, the Emulate Liver-Chip S1 is in the final stages of qualification. Two independent commercial users need to successfully produce similar results. Pending successful completion, the Liver-Chip will be the first FDA-approved DDT to assess the potential of a small-molecule candidate drug to cause DILI when a prior structurally similar small-molecule has shown DILI in the clinic.
High-throughput capabilities
Moving toward reduction and, in some cases, replacement of animal models demands both biological fidelity and throughput. For model development and target validation, the Zoë-CM2® Culture Module automates the precise condition needed to culture up to 12 chips.
For high-throughput options, the AVA
Emulation System is a self-contained Organ-on-a-Chip workstation that fuses high-throughput microfluidic tissue culture, full environmental control, and real-time imaging into a single, compact benchtop unit. The Chip-Array
consumable integrates 12 independent Organ-Chips into an SBS format for 96-well streamlined workflows with multichannel pipettes and automated liquid handlers.
Reference
1. Ewart, L., Apostolou, A., Briggs, S.A. et al. Performance assessment and economic analysis of a human Liver-Chip for predictive toxicology. Commun Med 2, 154 (2022). doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00209-1.
Click Here to learn more about Emulate’s product portfolio emulatebio.com/resources/emulate-product-brochure.
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NHS trusts lack support to manage ePMA safety risks, HSSIB says
A HSSIB report has warned that NHS trusts are being left to manage digital safety risks linked to ePMA systems.
STAT+: For prostate cancer patients set on surgery, new hormone regimen may improve outcomes, study finds
CHICAGO — Patients with high risk prostate cancer that hasn’t spread typically have two standard treatment paths before them. Remove the prostate surgically, or do a combination of radiation therapy and hormone therapy. Now, with the results of a new phase 3 clinical trial, some oncologists believe a third option may soon be laid on the table: surgery with hormone therapy both before and after the operation.
The study, called the PROTEUS trial, found that combining two hormone therapies both before and after surgery was superior to just one hormone therapy before and after surgery in high risk, early stage prostate cases.
There is a range in how prostate cancer experts are interpreting the results, however. Many told STAT that they believed it would lead to a new standard of care, with Emmanual Antonarakis, a genitourinary medical oncologist at the University of Minnesota, calling it a “watershed moment” in prostate cancer in a New England Journal of Medicine editorial.
Imaging Technique Can Differentiate Lung Inflammation from Fibrosis
A type of computed tomography (CT) imaging known as SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) in combination with a new imaging agent could allow clinicians and researchers to visualize inflammation in the lungs to better target treatment to patients.
Interstitial lung disease includes over 200 conditions that scar and inflame the lungs. Researchers estimate around 650,000 people in the U.S. have this kind of lung disease and 50,000 new patients are diagnosed in the U.S. each year with interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) alone. The main problem with interstitial lung disease is that doctors currently cannot reliably tell inflammation from scarring without invasive diagnostic procedures.
In this Phase II study, presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, Druin Burch, consultant physician at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, U.K., and colleagues tested whether a radioactive imaging agent, 99mTc-maraciclatide, injected into patients imaged with SPECT-CT could detect inflammation in the lungs.
“The molecular imaging agent 99mTc-maraciclatide binds to αvβ3 integrin, which is upregulated in vascular endothelial cells during angiogenesis, a cardinal feature of inflammation,” explain Burch and colleagues. “The agent has demonstrated diagnostic promise in other inflammatory conditions such as endometriosis.”
Overall, 15 people were scanned as part of the study: five healthy controls, five with IPF, and five with fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which involves more active inflammation. The researchers found that those with fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis had nearly double the inflammatory signal on imaging of healthy controls. Patients with IPF were somewhere between these two groups, which might be expected as IPF is known to be more fibrotic than inflammatory.
“While current imaging techniques can provide a structural view of fibrosis in the lungs, there is no reliable, non-invasive way to identify inflammation,” commented Burch in a press statement. “A tool that could detect inflammation in interstitial lung disease patients could help pinpoint those most likely to respond to anti-inflammatory therapy.”
To reach a wider group of patients a Phase III study is required to test the imaging agent in more people. 99mTc-maraciclatide has FDA Fast Track status for use in patients with interstitial lung disease, so if a larger study is successful it could be available to patients in less than five years.
“Being able to differentiate the fibrotic and inflammation stages of interstitial lung disease is not just beneficial to inform treatment decisions, but also for the development new therapies,” said Burch. “This approach has the potential to unlock a wide range of anti-inflammatory drugs.”
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STAT+: Practice-changing results reported for Revolution Medicines pancreatic cancer drug
CHICAGO — Rachna Shroff, a physician and pancreatic cancer expert, was seeing patients at the University of Arizona Cancer Center in April when she heard the striking clinical results about an experimental pill called daraxonrasib. Patients taking the targeted drug lived nearly twice as long as patients offered standard chemotherapy — an outcome never seen before in the pancreatic cancer field.
“Having treated pancreatic cancer for 16 years, I actually started crying in the clinic,” Shroff said at a media briefing. “This is such an incredibly impactful study for our patients.”
On Sunday, detailed results from the daraxonrasib clinical trial conducted by the drug’s maker, the biotech company Revolution Medicines, were presented here at the plenary session of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The study was published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Teclistamab Outperforms Standard Therapy in Relapsed Multiple Myeloma
The treatment landscape for multiple myeloma has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past decade, driven by a growing arsenal of immunotherapies that harness the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer. Now, results from a large international Phase III trial suggest that one of the newest entrants to this class, the bispecific antibody teclistamab, may be poised to move even earlier in the treatment paradigm.
The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, showed that teclistamab significantly improved progression-free survival and depth of response compared with standard therapies in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma.
The study represents one of the strongest demonstrations to date that chemotherapy-free immunotherapy can outperform conventional approaches even after only a limited number of prior treatments.
Moving bispecific antibodies earlier in treatment
Teclistamab belongs to a rapidly expanding class of therapies known as bispecific antibodies. Unlike traditional monoclonal antibodies, bispecifics are engineered to bind two targets simultaneously. Teclistamab recognizes both BCMA, a protein expressed on multiple myeloma cells, and CD3 on T cells, effectively bringing immune cells into direct contact with tumor cells and triggering targeted cancer cell killing.
The therapy has already shown substantial activity in heavily pretreated patients with advanced disease. However, investigators wanted to determine whether moving the drug earlier in the disease course could provide even greater benefit.
“Now we have chemotherapy-free immunotherapy options for patients whose myeloma has relapsed for the first time,” said C. Ola Landgren, MD, chief of the Sylvester Myeloma Institute and senior author of the study. “We are seeing very deep responses and long clinical benefit from these therapies. This is part of a much bigger transformation happening in myeloma care.”
Landmark global trial
The Phase III MajesTEC-9 trial enrolled 593 patients across 24 countries. Participants had relapsed multiple myeloma after one to three prior lines of therapy, representing a patient population increasingly encountered in routine clinical practice.
Approximately three-quarters of patients had already become refractory to commonly used treatments, including immunomodulatory drugs such as lenalidomide and anti-CD38 therapies such as daratumumab. These patients typically face diminishing treatment options and shorter durations of disease control.
Patients were randomized to receive either teclistamab or standard treatment regimens.
The results demonstrated a clear advantage for the bispecific antibody.
After 18 months of follow-up, nearly 70% of patients treated with teclistamab remained free from disease progression, compared with only about 27% of patients receiving standard therapies.
The magnitude of benefit exceeded what many clinicians have come to expect in relapsed myeloma, where treatment resistance often emerges rapidly.
Deep remissions become increasingly common
Beyond delaying disease progression, teclistamab produced remarkably deep responses.
Nearly two-thirds of treated patients achieved complete remission, meaning no evidence of disease could be detected using conventional testing methods.
Another highlight was the frequency of minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity, an increasingly important endpoint in multiple myeloma research. MRD testing uses highly sensitive techniques capable of detecting tiny numbers of remaining cancer cells that standard assessments might miss.
Many patients receiving teclistamab achieved MRD-negative status, suggesting that the therapy may be capable of driving deep eradication of disease.
“To see that this drug is so efficacious and so safe across patients from all these locations worldwide is a very strong signal,” Landgren said. “To see that in patients who have been exposed and refractory to commonly used myeloma treatments is very important.”
The broader shift away from chemotherapy
The results reflect a larger evolution occurring throughout multiple myeloma treatment.
For decades, chemotherapy served as the backbone of therapy. Today, however, treatment increasingly revolves around immune-based approaches including monoclonal antibodies, CAR T-cell therapies, and bispecific antibodies.
Researchers are not only developing new immunotherapies but also moving them earlier into treatment algorithms, where the immune system may be more intact and capable of mounting stronger anti-tumor responses.
The success of teclistamab in earlier-relapse patients supports this strategy and raises the possibility that bispecific antibodies could eventually become standard components of frontline treatment.
Managing infection risk remains critical
Despite the encouraging efficacy results, teclistamab is not without challenges.
Because the therapy activates T cells and alters immune function, infection remains one of the most important safety considerations. The risk is particularly pronounced during the first several months of treatment, when immune suppression can occur as part of the therapeutic response.
To mitigate this risk, patients typically receive antiviral and antibiotic prophylaxis, undergo routine monitoring of immunoglobulin levels, and may receive supplemental immunoglobulin infusions when necessary.
Investigators reported that these risks were manageable with appropriate monitoring and supportive care, consistent with previous studies of bispecific antibodies.
Looking toward curative strategies
The success of teclistamab is part of a broader effort to transform multiple myeloma from a chronic relapsing disease into one that can potentially be controlled for extended periods, or perhaps one day cured.
Researchers are already investigating whether teclistamab and related bispecific antibodies can be incorporated into even earlier treatment settings, including newly diagnosed disease.
“For me, the goal is to develop curative strategies,” Landgren said. “We are working toward treatments that can either eliminate the disease entirely or control it for very long periods while minimizing the burden on patients and preserving quality of life.”
As bispecific antibodies continue to demonstrate increasingly durable responses, the field is moving closer to that goal. The MajesTEC-9 results suggest that immune-based therapies are no longer merely alternatives to conventional treatment, they may be emerging as the new standard for many patients with relapsed multiple myeloma.
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Antibiotic Design Strategy Overcomes Efflux-Mediated Resistance in Preclinical Study
Researchers headed by a team at King’s College London have developed a new way of designing antibiotics that could support the discovery of new treatments for drug-resistant infections.
Designed to overcome one of the ways bacteria escape antibiotic treatment, the Efflux Resistance Breaker (ERB) approach allows researcher to chemically redesign antibiotics so that they are less easily removed from the cells by bacterial efflux pumps. The technology could also help revive antibiotics that have lost effectiveness due to the evolution of efflux-mediated resistance.
Study lead Professor Khondaker Miraz Rahman, PhD, a professor of medicinal chemistry at King’s College London, said: “Antimicrobial resistance is rising, but the number of truly new antibiotics in development remains worryingly low. Our work shows that we can redesign antibiotics so they stay inside bacterial cells at higher concentrations and overcome resistance mechanisms that would normally make them ineffective. This approach could help us design better new antibiotics, but it could also help revive existing antibiotic classes that bacteria have learned to defeat.”
Rahman is senior author of the team’s published paper in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, titled “Designing Antibiotics with Inherent Resistance to Efflux as a Strategy to Revive Discovery against Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens.”
Worldwide increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is threatening new developments in antibiotics, the authors noted. “The development and approval of new antibiotics are currently being outpaced by the emergence of resistance to existing drugs, a trend that must be reversed to ensure the long-term effectiveness of antibiotics.”
Many bacteria use molecular pumps, known as efflux pumps, to push antibiotics out of the cell before the drugs can reach levels high enough to kill them. This reduces the amount of antibiotic inside the bacteria and allows resistant infections to survive. Previous strategies have tried to combine antibiotics with separate efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs), the team continued. “Efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) have been pursued as adjunct therapies to safeguard approved antibiotics prone to efflux-based resistance.” However, no EPI has yet been approved. “As well as a lack of mechanistic insight and biochemical information regarding efflux pumps, we opine that this failure is rooted in a fundamental flaw in the EPI-antibiotic combination approach: that the antibiotics remain unmodified substrates and can be effluxed by different pumps despite the presence of EPIs,” the authors noted.
The study by Rahman and colleagues has now shown that antibiotics can be chemically redesigned so they are less easily removed by these pumps. Their approach builds resistance-breaking properties directly into the antibiotic molecule, meaning that the antibiotic is designed to protect itself from being pumped out, allowing it to remain inside the bacterial cell at higher concentrations, and so restoring its ability to kill bacteria even when resistance mechanisms are present.
Importantly, the work shows that the ERB approach could support a new way of developing antibiotics by building resistance-breaking properties directly into their design. In their reported study the team developed ERB-modified fluoroquinolones and demonstrated their effectiveness against multiple bacterial pathogens, and in mouse infection models. The study provides an important proof of concept for antibiotic discovery, showing that maintaining high intracellular antibiotic concentration can help overcome resistance, including in bacteria that already show reduced susceptibility to existing antibiotics. “This study demonstrates that ERB modification enhances intracellular accumulation, reduces efflux susceptibility, and preserves antibacterial potency, as supported by complementary mechanistic, biochemical, and in vivo evidence,” the scientists concluded.
Added J. Mark Sutton, PhD, at the UK Health Security Agency, a key collaborator on this project, “Efflux pumps are a major cause of antibiotic resistance because they reduce the concentration of drug inside the bacterial cell. This study shows that rational chemical design can be used to overcome that problem. By building efflux resistance directly into the antibiotic, we may be able to restore activity against bacteria that are no longer controlled by current drugs.”
The researchers believe the ERB platform could be used as a general strategy to design antibiotics with built-in resilience to efflux-mediated resistance. Their team describes the ERB technology as a framework for developing next-generation antibiotics and for revitalizing existing drugs. “Beyond revitalizing existing drugs, ERB technology provides a general framework for designing next-generation antibiotics with built-in resilience to efflux-mediated resistance at the earliest stages of discovery,” they stated.
The team says it will work towards commercializing the ERB technology and advancing antibiotics developed using this strategy towards clinical development, with the aim of translating this discovery into new treatment options for drug-resistant infections.
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