A research team at the Medical University of Vienna has discovered a new approach to treating a particularly frequent and difficult-to-treat form of lung cancer. The study shows that a combination of two well-studied classes of drugs – ERBB inhibitors and Aurora kinase inhibitors – is significantly more effective against KRAS-mutated lung adenocarcinomas than existing therapies. The research, currently published in the journal npj Precision Oncology, opens up a new and promising path for patients for whom there are currently only limited treatment options.

Findings reveal a general decline in vaccine hesitancy during the 15 months following the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in 2021-2022, with almost two-thirds of those initially hesitant going on to receive one or more COVID-19 vaccinations.

The most common reasons for original COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were concerns around vaccine effectiveness and side effects. But people who cited these reasons for hesitancy were more likely to change their minds and subsequently get vaccinated.

 In contrast, participants who reported being hesitant because of a generalised anti-vaccine sentiment, a mistrust of vaccine developers, or having a low perceived risk from COVID-19 remained more reluctant to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

The authors say that public health officials and policymakers need to recognise that certain types of vaccine hesitancy are highly context-specific and may be more readily addressed, while others are more resistant to change.