Research spotlight: Subtle health changes may signal progressive supranuclear palsy years in advance
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-Jun-2026 06:15 ET (1-Jun-2026 10:15 GMT/UTC)
Weige “Charlie” Zhao, MD, and Anne-Marie Wills, MD, MPH, of the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute, are the lead and senior authors of a paper published in Movement Disorders, “Risk Factors for the Diagnosis of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy in the UK Biobank.”
For more than a decade, Ukrainian children have grown up with war as a constant backdrop. According to researchers, the psychological consequences are now becoming clear. A comprehensive scoping review of 37 studies finds that Ukrainian children and adolescents exposed to a decade of war face high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), internalising and externalising symptoms, suicidality, and self-harm.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer. It kills more people in the U.S. than breast, prostate and colon cancer combined. When lung adenocarcinoma, the most common primary lung cancer in the U.S., grows into nearby blood vessels (a process called vascular invasion), the tumor is more likely to recur even if surgically removed. Pathologists can identify areas of vascular invasion post-operatively, but surgeons could perform more extensive surgery to lower the risk of recurrence if they could predict which tumors were more likely to have vascular invasion.
Researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine believe they have, for the first time, identified genes whose activity changes in lung tumors with vascular invasion. Additionally, they also discovered that they could detect these changes in small pieces of the tumor collected during a presurgical biopsy procedure.
Chronic stress may significantly influence the course of cancer by affecting key biological mechanisms involved in tumor progression and immune response. Increasing evidence suggests that prolonged exposure to stress hormones can promote tumor growth, facilitate metastasis, and weaken the body's natural defense systems.
Researchers emphasize that stress is not only a psychological burden but also a physiological factor with measurable effects on cancer development and treatment outcomes. Stress-related processes, including inflammation, hormonal dysregulation, and immune suppression, may contribute to a more aggressive disease course.
These findings highlight the importance of integrating psychological support and stress management into standard oncological care. Addressing chronic stress could become an important complementary strategy in improving patient outcomes and quality of life.
Tsinghua University Press has launched Health Engineering, a new international open-access journal designed to unite engineering, biotechnology, and medical science in addressing some of the most pressing global health challenges. The journal aims to accelerate research that applies engineering principles to improve health outcomes, enable earlier disease intervention, and support the transition from treatment-focused medicine toward proactive health management.