Australian scientists have uncovered a promising new approach to treating pancreatic cancer, by targeting the tissue around the tumour to make it 'softer' and more responsive to chemotherapy. The findings are published in Science Translational Medicine. In the study, which was carried out in mice and in patient-derived samples, researchers primed pancreatic tumours with a three-day course of Fasudil - a drug that 'slackens the ropes' of surrounding tissue to make tumours softer, and also makes the blood vessels around tumours 'leaky'.

Artificially intelligent algorithms can learn to identify amazingly subtle information, enabling them to distinguish between people in photos or to screen medical images as well as a doctor. But in most cases their ability to perform such feats relies on training that involves thousands to trillions of data points. This means artificial intelligence doesn't work all that well in situations where there is very little data, such as drug development.

A new cancer-drug delivery system shows the ability to exploit the oxygen-poor areas of solid tumors that make the growths resistant to standard chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Carcinomas that affect the breast, lung, prostate and colon are among these solid-tumor cancers, as are malignancies in the lymphatic system, known as lymphomas, and the much less common sarcomas that arise in connective tissue.

Clinical trials found that it is safe to regularly infuse brain and lung cancer patients with 800 - 1000 times the daily recommended amount of vitamin C as a potential strategy to improve outcomes of standard cancer treatments. In a work presented in Cancer Cell, University of Iowa researchers also show pathways by which altered iron metabolism in cancer cells, and not normal cells, lead to increased sensitivity to cancer cell death caused by high dose vitamin C.

Scientists at EPFL and NTU have discovered that combining an anticancer drug with an antirheumatic produces improved effects against tumors. The discovery opens a new path for drug-drug synergy. One of the goals in pharmacology is to increase the efficiency of drugs by minimizing their side effects. Recently, this effort has led to combining unrelated drugs to exploit their synergistic effects.

According to recent reports, most Americans, of all ages and genders, do not meet the recommended vegetable intake of 2 to 3.5 cups per day, consuming an average of only 1.5 cups per day. Although tactics such as providing vegetables as a juice or hidden as a puree in entrees have been suggested, many people still say no thanks to vegetables, citing adverse taste perception.

A new paper published in the Annals of Neurology reports the most common neurological diseases pose a serious annual financial burden for the nation. The report notes that the current estimated annual cost to American society of just nine of the most common neurological diseases is staggering, totaling $789 billion in 2014 dollars. These conditions include Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, low back pain, stroke, traumatic brain injury, migraine, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and Parkinson's disease.