Mayo Clinic faculty continue to share their expertise across a broad range of medical and health care topics, including women's health, concussion, disparities in care, and the never abating COVID-19.

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Delta Air Lines hires Mayo Clinic executive as company's first chief health officer

Atlanta Business Chronicle, 1/25/2021

Delta is betting health care will be a key aspect of its post-pandemic existence, so the airline hired an executive to tackle the issue.

Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) on Jan. 25 announced the hiring of Dr. Henry Ting as its first chief health officer. Ting is currently chief value officer for the Mayo Clinic and will join Delta on Feb. 15. …

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Less Aggressive Treatment Warranted for MCL With Primary GI Involvement

Targeted Oncology, 1/27/2021

Patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and primary gastrointestinal (GI) involvement have similar outcomes to those with secondary GI involvement, according to results from one of the largest known studies of GI MCL that was published in Blood Cancer Journal.

“The main implications of our research are that primary GI MCL is a rare and distinct presentation of MCL and it tends to be treated less aggressively, especially in patients with a lesser extent of GI involvement. However, we showed that it has a similar outcome to that of secondary GI MCL. Therefore, we can conclude that less aggressive treatment of primary GI MCL could be reasonable, even if it is still unknown how an intensified systematic treatment approach for these patients could result in better outcome,” Grzegorz S Nowakowski, MD, told Targeted Oncology, in an interview. …

NOTE: Read the article for more from Dr. Nowakowski.

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New Data Reveals Disparities in Lupus Rates, Particularly for BIPOC Women

Everyday Health, 1/26/2021

Lupus rates are 9 times higher in women than men, and are highest among American Indian and Black women, according to new data.

The research provides the first national estimate of how widespread the auto-immune disease is, including its prevalence in certain ethnic groups. Overall, a total of 204,295 people had lupus in 2018 in the United States, according to the study published this month in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology. … The more comprehensive data on lupus rates in the United States will improve research efforts, too, says Ali Duarte Garcia, MD, a rheumatologist at Mayo Clinic who was not involved in this latest research, but is a recent recipient of CDC funding to carry this lupus research forward.

 “Now we can look closer at patients’ experiences with lupus and how the disease evolves,” Dr. Duarte Garcia says.

His ongoing work with the CDC will consider lupus patients’ access to healthcare, pain management, the prevalence of disability, the severity of the disease, and mortality and survival rates based on the data from these registries.

NOTE: Read more about Dr. Duarte Garcia's work and the CDC funding. Dr. Duarte Garcia is also a Kern Health Care Delivery Scholar.

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Prescribing Practices Improving, But Opioids Still Prescribed at High Rate for Diabetic Neuropathy

Endocrinology Network, 1/28/2021

New research from a Mayo Clinic-led team of physicians found the initiation of pain medication for newly diagnosed diabetic peripheral neuropathy has dropped by more than a third since 2014, but also found rates of opioid prescribing remain high. …

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First mammography screening guidelines issued for older survivors of breast cancer

Mirage, 1/29/2021

A nationwide panel of experts has developed the first mammography guidelines for older survivors of breast cancer, providing a framework for discussions between survivors and their physicians on the pros and cons of screening in survivors’ later years.

The guidelines, published online today in a paper in JAMA Oncology, recommend discontinuing routine mammograms for survivors with a life expectancy under five years; considering stopping screening for those with a 5-10-year life expectancy; and continuing mammography for those whose life expectancy is greater than 10 years. The guidelines will be complemented by printed materials to help survivors gauge their risk of cancer recurring in the breast and weigh the potential benefits and drawbacks of mammography with their health care team.

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Being obese can sometimes help protect you against certain diseases, study says

Study finds, 1/29/2021

… While a diet rich in unsaturated fats might exacerbate certain illnesses, scientists say eating saturated fats could help protect against them. The findings could offer the answer as to why obesity seems to have a positive impact during acute or short term illness.

Study authors say one example is acute pancreatitis (AP). Diets rich in unsaturated fat may worsen the condition however, saturated fats may provide protection. People with the illness suffer from inflammation of the pancreas, with stomach pain being the main symptom.

“Obesity sometimes seems protective in disease,” the team, led by corresponding author Vijay Singh, writes in the journal Science Advances. “This obesity paradox is predominantly described in reports from the Western Hemisphere during acute illnesses.” …

Related article:

Adipose saturation reduces lipotoxic systemic inflammation

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Hormones are key in brain health differences between men and women

The Telegraph, 2/1/2021

Medical science has come a long way since the days of "bikini medicine," when the only time doctors managed a woman's health differently than a man's was when treating the parts of her body found under a bikini. …

Estradiol, the type of estrogen produced by the ovaries during a woman's reproductive years, is the most important driver of brain health, said Dr. Kejal Kantarci, director of the Women's Health Research Center and a radiology professor at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Her research suggests longer exposure to estradiol may offer some protection to the brain. ...

NOTE: Read the article for more expert discussion, including more from Dr. Kantarci.

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Bystander Killing Could Be Key Factor in CAR-T Success in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Cancer Therapy Advisor, 2/1/2021

Even after a decade of treating patients with hematologic malignancies with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell (CAR-T) therapies, researchers are still trying to understand why most patients eventually relapse. Equally puzzling to some scientists is the question of these cellular interventions cause lasting remission at all in many patients. …

A study published by Brody’s team and collaborators at Kite Pharma in Cancer Discovery in December 2020 offered one explanation.⁴ Experiments in animal models suggested that CAR-T cells can kill off-target cells that are in the vicinity of the cells they’re designed to target, offering the first in vivo proof of localized bystander killing. This off-target effect is mediated by the interaction between the protein Fas—a cell death receptor expressed on many cellular surfaces—and its ligand, which is present on T cells. In fact, tumoral expression of Fas was predictive of survival in patients with DLBCL who were treated with anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy in the phase 1/2 ZUMA-1 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02348216). …

“I think it’s becoming more and more [clear] that the CAR-Ts, in addition to their CAR interaction with the tumor antigen, rely on the Fas-Fas ligand…interaction to exert their killing. The next question is, ‘how do we manipulate these pathways safely to make CARs more potent?”” said Saad J. Kenderian, MB, ChB, a consultant in the division of hematology in the department of internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was not involved in the study. …

NOTE: Read the article to find out more about the study and Dr. Kenderian's comments.

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Mayo Clinic shows expertise in COVID-19 discussions worldwide

• Inside a new COVID-19 treatment that's keeping Arizonans out of the hospital, AZCentral.com, 1/29/2021
• Is the pandemic contributing to a speech delay in your child? Gulf News, 1/31/2021
• Gut bacteria point to novel strategies for combating asthma, COVID-19, Fierce Biotech, 1/25/2021
• How Does COVID-19 Affect the Brain? AlzForum, 1/30/2021
• MAYO CLINIC RESEARCHES LONG-TERM IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE HUMAN HEART, KIMT, 1/27/2021
• Is the coronavirus keeping us up at night? Here's what the research says. The Advisory Board, 1/27/2021
• VIRTUAL TOWN HALL WORKS TO ANSWER VACCINE QUESTIONS FROM COMMUNITY MEMBERS, KIMT, 1/25/2021
• HCA data consortium with AHRQ and others seeks to speed COVID-19 research, HIMSS, 1/27/2021
• Obesity Likely to Adversely Affect Survival Among Patients With ALL, AJMC, 1/26/2021
• Is it safe to visit others again after getting COVID-19 vaccine? The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 1/25/2021
• Mutations In COVID-19 Virus Create A ‘Desperate Race Between Time, The Virus, And The Vaccine’, Houston Public Media, 1/25/2021
• UK COVID variant identified in Minnesota, KAAL, 1/25/2021
• COVID-19 Vaccine and Pain Relievers: What to Know, healthline, 1/28/2021
• Patients have to push for antibody treatments, Kaiser Health News, 1/26/2021
• New antibody infusion treatment for COVID-19 ramped up to help reduce hospitalizations, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 1/27/2021
• If I Have Cancer, Dementia or MS, Should I Get the Covid Vaccine? Physician's Weekly, 1/28/2021
• What Arizona scientists and physicians learned in the year since the first COVID-19 case, Arizona Republic, 1/26/2021
• Latinos impacted at a higher rate than others during pandemic, ABC15 Arizona, 1/25/2021
• J&J says vaccine effective against Covid, though weaker against South Africa variant, NBC News, 1/29/2021
• Instant View: J&J COVID-19 vaccine is 66% effective globally, Reuters, 1/29/2021

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Tags: About, Alex Adjei, Ali Duarte Garcia, breast cancer, CAR-T cell therapy, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concussion, COVID-19, depression, diabetes, drug discovery, Findings, gene mutation, Grzegorz Nowakowski, health disparities, heart attack, heart failure, Henry Ting, hereditary cancer, hormones, Kejal Kantarci, Kern Health Care Delivery Scholars, lupus, lymphoma, mammogram, medical innovation, menopause, migraine, neuropathy, News, News of the Week, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, obesity, oncology, opioids, pancreatitis, Rashmi Halker Singh, S. Vincent Rajkumar, Saad Kenderian, Sam Savitz, Scott Bohner, Stephanie Faubion, Timothy Nelson, Vijay Singh, women's health