Medical University of South Carolina researchers report in Palliative and Supportive Care that early virtual palliative care for people living with dementia, as well as for their caregivers, is both feasible and well-received. The SUPPORT-D program helped families to understand the disease better, plan ahead and feel more supported. Findings suggest that introducing palliative care early, rather than at the end of life, can improve quality of life and reduce uncertainty for families facing dementia.

An enigmatic type of circulating tumor cell called a dual-positive (DP) cell is associated with shorter survival time in patients with advanced breast cancer, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. The findings highlight the potential importance of these under-studied cells in breast cancer progression.

The news media is shaping reproductive narratives and stigma around childlessness, presenting it as a threat to national interests, a deviation from moral or cultural norms, as a risk and, sometimes, as a legitimate life path. In an article published March 11^th in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health, Julia Schröders of Umeå University, Sweden, and colleagues, conclude that understanding these narratives will allow the development of media literacy initiatives to destigmatize and support more equitable health communication.

Google Earth’ for human organs made available online

An international team of scientists and clinicians has announced, in Science Advances, the launch of a new open-access 3D portal that allows users to explore intact human organs in unprecedented detail — from the whole organ down to individual cells locally. The Human Organ Atlas, created using a powerful synchrotron imaging method, brings together some of the most detailed 3D images of human organs ever produced. It enables scientists, doctors, educators, students and the wider public to interactively “fly through” organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, kidney and liver, providing a new way of understanding human anatomy and human diseases.