EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 16-Dec-2025 15:11 ET (16-Dec-2025 20:11 GMT/UTC)

Glue prevents complications after breast cancer surgery

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers in Russia have demonstrated that the use of a latex-based tissue adhesive during axillary lymphadenectomy significantly reduces the risk of seroma and lymphorrhea, shortens hospital stay, and accelerates the initiation of adjuvant therapy.

Journal: Chinese Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Simple refinements improve thumb reconstruction post-severe injury

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Surgeons in Vietnam successfully applied refinements to a little-used flap technique to reconstruct a patient’s thumb after a severe motorcycle injury. By preserving subcutaneous tissue and creating a safe arterial margin, the team improved blood flow, reduced complications, and restored nearly full thumb function within a year. Their preliminary case report suggests these refinements may make the reverse homodigital dorsoradial flap a more reliable option for thumb reconstruction.

Journal: Chinese Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Global lead exposure still costs trillions and endangers children, NUS study finds

National University of Singapore
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lead poisoning was once thought to largely be a problem of the past, as the globe gradually weaned itself off leaded gasoline in road vehicles in 2021. But has global lead pollution truly been resolved?A new study led by Dr Chen Mengli, a Research Fellow from the Tropical Marine Science Institute at the National University of Singapore (NUS), in collaboration with researchers from Imperial College London, University of Warwick, University of Oxford, Jadavpur University, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Bristol, showed the answer is not yet: lead exposure remains a pressing public health and economic challenge in the 21st century.

Journal: Communications Earth & Environment

Volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath: Applications in cancer diagnosis and predicting treatment efficacy

Chinese Medical Journals Publishing House Co., Ltd.
Peer-Reviewed Publication

This review synthesizes the utility of exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in cancer diagnosis, treatment efficacy prediction, and recurrence monitoring. As endogenous metabolic byproducts, VOCs enable noninvasive detection via technologies like gas chromatography-mass

spectrometry (GC-MS), electronic noses, selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS), and high-pressure photonionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPPI-TOFMS).

Key findings include strong diagnostic performance (e.g., lung cancer AUC=0.95, hepatocellular carcinoma VOC sensitivity outperforming AFP)，accurate prediction of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy response (AUC=0.89–0.97), and utility in colorectal cancer postoperative recurrence surveillance. Innovatively, it links VOC alterations to mechanisms (oxidative stress, CYP450 overexpression) and compares detection technologies’ strengths/limitations.

Clinical implications: VOCs address gaps of traditional biomarkers (low sensitivity/specificity)， while highlighting needs for standardized sampling/analysis protocols and improved device stability to advance clinical translation.

Journal: Cancer Pathogenesis and Therapy

90% of Science Is Lost: Frontiers’ revolutionary AI-powered service transforms data sharing to deliver breakthroughs faster

Frontiers
Business Announcement

Most scientific data never fuel the discoveries they should.

For every 100 datasets created, around 80 remain in the lab, 20 are shared but rarely reused, fewer than two meet FAIR standards, and only one typically drives new findings.

The result: delayed cancer treatments, climate models short on evidence, and research that cannot be reproduced.

Frontiers, the open-science publisher, is tackling this problem with the launch of Frontiers FAIR² Data Management, the world’s first all-in-one, AI-powered service for research data. Designed to transform how data is shared so it is reusable and credited, it brings together curation, compliance checks, AI-ready packaging, peer review, an interactive portal, certification, and lifetime hosting in a single workflow — ensuring that research funded today delivers faster breakthroughs in health, sustainability, and technology tomorrow.

Skin symptoms may forewarn mental health risks

European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Reports and Proceedings

Scientists have discovered that mental health patients who have skin conditions may be more at risk of worse outcomes, including suicidality and depression. This work, which may aid in identifying at-risk patients and personalising psychiatric treatment, is presented at the ECNP meeting in Amsterdam.

Meeting: 38th ECNP Congress

Brain test predicts ability to achieve orgasm – but only in patients taking antidepressants

European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Reports and Proceedings

Researchers have discovered that the ability to have an erection or to orgasm is related to the levels of serotonin in the brain, but this relation only applies to depressed patients taking SSRI antidepressants. At the moment, there is no test for who might experience sexual problems during treatment for depression, but this discovery may help depressed patients to choose antidepressants which allow them to maintain or regain an active sex life when treated with antidepressants. This work is presented at the ECNP conference in Amsterdam.

Meeting: 38th ECNP Congress