All posts tagged: treatment

Why ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Deserves the ‘Criterion Treatment’

Why ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Deserves the ‘Criterion Treatment’

Published by Sam Flores

Over the past year, KPop Demon Hunters seems to have completely overtaken culture. Since premiering on Netflix in June 2025, the animated film has been watched nearly 650 million times and, according to Nielsen, accounted for some 20.5 billion viewing minutes last year. The soundtrack topped Billboard charts that fall; Spirit Halloween instantly sold out of licensed costumes. But even the most ardent fans likely did not anticipate the mega-hit’s next big merch drop: a disc release from the Criterion Collection, home to some of cinema’s most distinguished titles. By some metrics, KPop Demon Hunters may be the most popular movie ever to be added to the collection. (Other new entries include David Lynch’s Wild at Heart and a Ukrainian folk romance from 1965.) It’s almost certainly the first Criterion inclusion to have its own flavor of McFlurry. KPop Demon Hunters is an unlikely candidate for what’s come to be called “the Criterion treatment”: a painstaking transfer to disc, along with a making-of documentary and other special features, and a number printed on the box’s …

Holy Grail In Cancer Treatment? Moderna Erupts After Melanoma Vaccine Late-Stage Trial Success

Holy Grail In Cancer Treatment? Moderna Erupts After Melanoma Vaccine Late-Stage Trial Success

Published by Jenni Sidey

Moderna’s shares soared as much as 83% in premarket trading in New York after its personalized cancer vaccine, developed in collaboration with Merck & Co., reduced the risk of melanoma returning in a large, late-stage trial. The result marks the first positive Phase 3 trial for a personalized cancer vaccine by any company.  The study met its primary endpoint by showing that the cancer vaccine, called intismeran autogene, combined with Merck’s blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda, improved recurrence-free survival compared with Keytruda alone. The study also met a secondary endpoint by reducing the risk of cancer spreading to other parts of the body. Professor Georgina Long, the study’s principal investigator, medical director of Melanoma Institute Australia, and chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Translational Research at the University of Sydney, wrote in a statement: Today’s results represent a landmark moment for adjuvant melanoma treatment. This is the first Phase 3 study to show that intismeran, a treatment designed based on the unique mutational ‘fingerprint’ of a patient’s own tumor, given in combination with pembrolizumab, can reduce the …

Strictly’s Amy Dowden shares health update after receiving cancer treatment in Celebrity Hunted scene

Strictly’s Amy Dowden shares health update after receiving cancer treatment in Celebrity Hunted scene

Published by Sam Flores

Strictly Come Dancing‘s Amy Dowden has opened up about her health ahead of her return after receiving cancer treatment on screen during Celebrity Hunted. The professional dancer, 36, was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago and has since undergone two mastectomies and chemotherapy. She also contracted sepsis and broke her foot. As documented in the recent series of Celebrity Hunted, Dowden returns to hospital once a month for preventative treatment. She competed on the reality show, which is currently airing on Channel 4, alongside Strictly co-star Carlos Gu. Despite how emotional the scene was to viewers at home, Dowden has since told The Independent that she now feels comfortable speaking about her treatment on screen. “I don’t really find it hard now revisiting it because I’m at the hospital once a month,” she said. Amy Dowden and Carlos Gu on ‘Celebrity Hunted’ (Channel 4) “It’s part of my routine now. I celebrate now how far I’ve come, how strong I feel, how healthy I am, and I’m just grateful really, and honoured to feel …

For women and children in West Africa, medical treatment often came too late. Then one model changed where care begins.

For women and children in West Africa, medical treatment often came too late. Then one model changed where care begins.

Published by Jenni Sidey

In 2009, a community health worker in the bustling capital of Bamako, Mali, found a young boy at home who had become dangerously ill within a matter of hours. Recognizing he needed urgent medical care, she arranged for him to be taken to a health facility. The journey was five kilometers, but distance was only part of the challenge. The boy’s father carried him on foot, then into an ambulance, then back on foot to cross a river, then into another ambulance. “At that time, it was very difficult for the ambulance to move within the community, because there were no clear roads,” says Djoumé Diakité, MD, co-founder and Mali Country Director of Muso, a nonprofit that had launched its Rapid Care approach the year before to address poor health outcomes in the region. At the clinic, a handful of doctors and nurses were responsible for everything from prenatal care to emergency medicine. The boy had severe malaria-related anemia and needed a blood transfusion. “It was very difficult to have access to blood at the …

NHS rolls out new treatment to prevent kidney transplant rejections

NHS rolls out new treatment to prevent kidney transplant rejections

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore The NHS is introducing a “double matching” blood process for kidney transplant patients to help ensure donated organs are less likely to be rejected. In addition to ensuring blood types match, scientists will now align white blood cells as closely as possible. NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) stated that the initiative could potentially prevent 100 kidney transplants from being rejected each year. Health leaders also hope the move will decrease the number of individuals waiting years for an organ, with some patients currently remaining on the waiting list for decades. Health service officials are rolling out the scheme nationwide for all kidney transplant patients following a successful pilot at London’s Hammersmith Hospital and the Royal Free. Approximately two in every five kidney transplant recipients require blood transfusions either before or after their operation. After a transfusion, some individuals produce antibodies; if …

Tiny injectable device could transform treatment for chronic pain and nerve disorders

Tiny injectable device could transform treatment for chronic pain and nerve disorders

Published by Jenni Sidey

Researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi developed a tiny injectable device that can electrically stimulate nerves without surgery, wires, or batteries. The seed-sized implant is powered wirelessly from outside the body and can precisely control nerve activity, potentially offering a less invasive treatment for chronic pain, movement disorders, paralysis, and other neurological conditions. Laboratory and animal testing showed the device could reliably activate nerves and control muscle movement, although researchers still need to improve its long-term stability, positioning, and external power system before widespread clinical use. A new medical breakthrough may soon change how doctors treat chronic pain and neurological conditions. Researchers from New York University Abu Dhabi, working with Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, have developed a device so small it can be injected through a needle, yet powerful enough to control nerve activity inside the body. The study introduces a new approach to therapy that avoids surgery, wires, and batteries. Instead, it offers a simpler, less invasive way to treat conditions that affect how the nervous system functions. …

Trump’s ally treatment of Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh is risky: Analysis

Trump’s ally treatment of Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh is risky: Analysis

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives with incoming Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh for Warsh’s swearing-in ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 22, 2026. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters After years of hostility toward the Federal Reserve, President Donald Trump has lately taken a new tack. He treats Chairman Kevin Warsh as almost a member of the Cabinet. There is nothing in U.S. law that requires the Fed chairman to hang up if the president calls, and it is arguably beneficial for the nation’s two most influential economic policymakers to understand where each is coming from. But Trump’s embrace of Warsh comes with risks for the economy. Fed independence isn’t some abstract moral norm. It exists to protect politicians from their instincts to run the economy too hot and to give central bankers reason to be deliberate in how they exercise their tremendous power over the economy.  Trump has “spoken repeatedly” with Warsh since Warsh’s confirmation as Fed chairman, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. That marks a sharp change from the president’s …

Snake blood proteins could lead to a more powerful antivenom treatment

Snake blood proteins could lead to a more powerful antivenom treatment

Published by Jenni Sidey

Western diamondback rattlesnake blood contains FETUA proteins that can neutralize different venom toxins when combined in precise mixtures. Optimized protein combinations completely protected laboratory mice from several viper venoms and were up to 10 times more potent by weight than commercial CroFab antivenom. The findings could support safer, cheaper recombinant antivenoms, but researchers must still prove the treatment works after a bite and against additional toxin families. For more than a century, scientists knew that vipers often survive exposure to their own venom. What protected them remained unclear. The answer now appears to involve several proteins circulating in snake blood. When combined in the right proportions, those proteins can block damaging venom components with striking power. University of Maryland researchers tested blood proteins from western diamondback rattlesnakes against venoms from several viper species. Optimized mixtures completely neutralized lethal rattlesnake venom in laboratory animals. The evolutionarily novel Crotalus FETUA proteins are single-chain molecules distinguished by their N termini. (CREDIT: PNAS) By weight, one combination was about 10 times more potent than a commercial sheep-derived rattlesnake antivenom. …