Personal vaccine may reduce risk of pancreatic cancer returning after surgery, small study finds
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(NEW YORK) — A personalized mRNA vaccine may reduce the risks of pancreatic cancer returning after surgery, according to a preliminary study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers, with a typical survival rate of only about a year after the diagnosis according to the study.
While the findings are encouraging, the vaccine is still in early testing and will likely take years before it becomes widely available — assuming ongoing trials continue to show success, according to Dr. Vinod P. Balachandran, lead investigator of the trial and senior author of the study.
In this small, preliminary trial of 16 patients, half had a strong immune response to the vaccine. Most of these responders remained cancer-free for more than three years, much longer than those who didn’t respond.
The vaccine works by training specialized immune system cells, known as T cells, to recognize and attack the cancer.
Researchers couldn’t track tumor shrinkage because all patients had surgery to remove visible cancer before vaccination. However, they found that the vaccine produced long-lasting T cells that may keep fighting cancer for years.
“This is one way through which you can make lots of T cells, and you can make these T cells such that they can persist for a long time in patients and retain their function,” Balachandran said.
Balachandran said “to be able to get an immune response has been very challenging,” especially when an illness like pancreatic cancer typically does not respond to vaccines, which highlights the significance of these findings.
A larger trial is now underway to confirm the results. If successful, this approach could lead to new ways to treat or even prevent pancreatic and other advanced cancers.
Overall, Balachandran said this study can “provide some important clues on how you would be able to develop vaccines more broadly for other cancers.”
“Hopefully this information that we will learn from these clinical trials will give us information to know apply vaccines in other settings, such as primary prevention, meaning preventing cancers from occurring even before they occur, with vaccines or perhaps also using it to treat patients who have more advanced disease,” Balachandran said.
Purdue Pharma headquarters; Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The company and once-prominent family behind the drug OxyContin agreed Thursday to increase their financial contribution to resolve mass opioid litigation.
The Sacklers and Purdue Pharma boosted their settlement contribution to $7.4 billion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a prior settlement in June 2024. If approved, the new plan would end the costliest corporate bankruptcy resulting from the U.S. opioid crisis.
Purdue, under the leadership of the Sackler families, invented, manufactured and aggressively marketed opioid products for decades, according to the lawsuits. States and cities across the country said it fueled waves of addiction and overdose deaths.
The pharmaceutical company introduced OxyContin, a brand name of oxycodone, in the 1990s and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 after the company was sued thousands of times.
Under the settlement terms, the Sacklers’ control of Purdue Pharma ends. The $7.4 billion will go directly to communities across the U.S. — including states, counties, cities and territories — over the next 15 years to support opioid addiction treatment, prevention, and recovery programs.
“Families throughout New York and across the nation are suffering from the immense pain and loss wrought by the opioid crisis,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office helped negotiate the settlement agreement.
“The Sackler family relentlessly pursued profit at the expense of vulnerable patients, and played a critical role in starting and fueling in the opioid epidemic,” she continued. “While no amount of money will ever fully repair the damage they caused, this massive influx of funds will bring resources to communities in need so that we can heal.”
Purdue Pharma planned to exit bankruptcy last year under terms that gave the Sacklers a full release from all civil opioid claims even though they themselves were not declaring bankruptcy. In return, the Sacklers agreed to pay $6 billion.
The Supreme Court rejected the attempt by the Sacklers to use Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy to shield themselves from liability.
Under the new terms, a significant amount of the settlement funds will be distributed in the first three years, with the Sacklers paying $1.5 billion and Purdue paying nearly $900 million in the first payment, followed by $500 million after one year, an additional $500 million after two years, and $400 million after three years.
A board of trustees selected by participating states in consultation with the other creditors will determine the future of the company. Purdue will continue to be overseen by a monitor and will be prevented from lobbying or marketing opioids.
“This story is about a family of cruel billionaires who believed they were above the law, pursued by states who never backed down,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said Thursday. “Today, we are forcing Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family to pay $7.4 billion for their role in igniting one of the most devastating public health crises in American history.”
Purdue Pharma said in a statement to ABC News, “We are extremely pleased that a new agreement has been reached that will deliver billions of dollars to compensate victims, abate the opioid crisis, and deliver treatment and overdose rescue medicines that will save lives. We have worked intensely with our creditors for months in mediation, and we are now focused on finalizing the details of a new Plan of Reorganization, which we look forward to presenting to the bankruptcy court.”
Beauty influencer Ashley Stobart discusses how she got a facelift after removing fillers from her face/ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Celebrities are increasingly opening up about reversing cosmetic procedures and swearing off dermal fillers, but some have discovered it can come with unexpected consequences.
“Friends” actress Courteney Cox spoke about removing her fillers on the “Gloss Angeles” podcast in 2023.
“I was just doing too many fillers and then having to have them removed which, thank God they are removable, but I think I’ve messed — I messed up a lot and now, luckily, I can, you know, I was able to reverse most of that,” the 60-year-old said.
“IMPACT x Nightline: Facelift: After Fillers?” streams on Hulu beginning Jan. 23.
Reality TV star Lala Kent known for “Vanderpump Rules” discussed her change of heart with BravoTV.com.
“I wanna stop with the lips, I wanna stop with the fillers, you know, it’s just enough is enough,” the 34-year-old said. “I’m starting to look at the comments and compare photos, I’m not about it anymore.”
In 2023, model Blac Chyna told “Impact x Nightline” about how losing weight prompted her to have cosmetic work reversed at age 34.
“As I started to slim down, my features started to really come out, like my cheekbones and everything. So with all the filler, that started to really protrude out now that my face has become slimmer,” she said. “It served its purpose, like I’m just, I’m cutting ties with it so I can move on to the next chapter in my life.”
UK beauty influencer and podcaster Ashley Stobart shares her reflections on cosmetic procedures with followers on her podcast “Nip, Tuck, Not Giving A…” She got nonsurgical injections of lip filler when she was 18 — the earliest age it’s legal to do so in her country.
“It was just that quick fix I needed for maybe loss of volume, wanting bigger lips, bigger cheeks, the jaw filler, the chin filler, the nose filler,” she told ABC News. “I was having all the filler.”
Hyaluronic acid, which is commonly used for fillers, is a gel-like substance that’s injected into spaces to give an appearance of plumpness, according to ABC News medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton.
He noted that the internet is flooded with ads for med spas offering seemingly cheap deals on fillers and Botox.
“When you scroll online, you see advertisements for things like fillers — that should be a red flag,” Sutton said. “When you see people looking for customers, aka patients, trying to do procedures that they may not be fully skilled in doing, selling it at a discount, you know, these should be red flags.”
These injectables are sometimes described as dissolving over time, but Sutton said this isn’t always the case.
“We’re learning more and more that many of these substances are persistent in people’s bodies for longer than they may think,” he said. “And that exposes people to risks that we are only beginning to understand.”
When Stobart got pregnant, it meant she took a break from topping up her filler. Then she realized it hadn’t worn off.
“There were just multiple layers of treatments that I had accumulated over the years,” she said. “I’m looking bigger and puffier than ever.”
She decided to get her fillers reversed, but dissolving more than a decade’s worth of substances she had in her face left her with sagging skin. So she opted to get a face-lift at age 34.
She’s not alone. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said that while the overwhelming majority of facelifts are still among people over 50, their members have observed an increase among people in their 40s and younger.
Even though Stobart had some of her fillers removed already, she said the face-lift surgery was grueling.
“They found a lot of hyaluronic acid, or remnants of some injectable at some point that I had had. They were pushing it out for hours,” she told ABC News. “I was in surgery for 9.5 hours in total. That wasn’t anticipated because when he opened everything up, it turned out there was still a lot left in there.”
Dr. Darien Sutton warned that the face is among the most complicated areas in the body due to the composition of blood vessels, nerves. and muscles, so the surgery requires expertise.
“The risk of complication is so high, and the risk of disfigurement is so high, that you have to make sure you’re doing it with someone who knows exactly what they’re doing,” he said.
Some people in their 20s and 30s are also sharing their surgical lift stories on social media. Ryan Joers is 26 years old, and started his cosmetic journey almost a decade ago with fillers.
“I had always seen on social media, other influencers,” he told ABC News. “Kylie Jenner, at that time was, I think, 16 years old, getting her lips done, and just seeing that kind of noise everywhere, seeing the influencers apply products to their lips that were beautiful and full was a big motivator.”
In the years that followed, Joers enjoyed being able to address perceived imperfections with filler. However, that changed when he was around 22.
“That was when I would smile — I didn’t see anything other than my lips,” he said. “I would see photos and videos of myself and just see lips.”
He acknowledged that he didn’t fully understand how fillers work when he first started getting them.
“Our knowledge on fillers was not what it was today, it was ‘fillers aren’t permanent.’ So you need more, you need more, you need more,” he said. “So I never really got the opportunity at first to understand different types of filler, how they interact differently in the body.”
After that, Joers began to undo what he had spent thousands of dollars and years of his life doing. He had some of his fillers dissolved and got a rhinoplasty, which is a plastic surgery that reshapes the nose. Then, at 25, he got a brow and eye lift.
“It was an interesting landscape, being, you know, a younger man — it comes with a lot of judgment from plastic surgeons,” he said. “You have to admit to someone not only that you made mistakes, but that you’re not happy with the way you look. And that’s a very vulnerable thing with anyone, whether it’s a friend or a doctor.”
Joers believes surgical lifts were his best option due to the limitations of the nonsurgical options available at med spas.
“I’m happier now with the way my face looks, given that surgery was an intervention or an option of altering my chin, altering my nose, altering my face in a way that naturally would have not been possible or achievable through a med spa procedure,” he said.
He hasn’t been afraid to be open and vulnerable about his journey, posting about his recovery and before-and-after shots on TikTok. His videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and he hopes telling his story will help those who are just starting their cosmetic journeys.
“I’m grateful for my experience, even the bad of it, because that’s how I got here,” he said. “Through that, I was able to learn and make better decisions when it came to permanent solutions.”
Having followed a similar path, Ashley Stobart told ABC News she hopes others learn from her story.
“I would just say, don’t rush into anything unless you’re 100% sure and you understand all of the pros and cons,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — Raw samples nationwide will now be collected and shared with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in order to test for bird flu, according to a new federal order issued by the agency on Friday.
The new federal order by the USDA includes three new requirements. Raw milk samples must now be shared upon request by dairy farms, bulk milk transporters or dairy processing facilities.
Herd owners with cattle that test positive for bird flu have to provide information that allows health officials to perform contact tracing and disease surveillance. Private laboratories and state veterinarians must now report positive bird flu test results to the USDA.
The decision comes after bird flu virus was found in samples of raw milk from a California farm, which issued a recall of all of its raw milk products earlier this week. The farm was also placed under quarantine by state health officials.
The USDA order marks the start of the agency’s National Milk Testing Strategy, a program intended to boost surveillance of the nation’s milk supply and dairy herds and increase understanding of how bird flu is spreading.
“Since the first … detection in livestock, USDA has collaborated with our federal, state and industry partners to swiftly and diligently identify affected herds and respond accordingly,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. “This new milk testing strategy will build on those steps to date and will provide a roadmap for states to protect the health of their dairy herds … and it will put us on a path to quickly controlling and stopping the virus’ spread nationwide.”
In April, reports emerged of bird flu fragments found in samples of pasteurized milk.
The fragments, however, were inactive remnants of the virus; they could not cause infection because the commercial milk supply undergoes pasteurization.
The USDA has previously warned of the possible dangers associated with drinking raw, unpasteurized milk due to elevated risks of foodborne illness.
The risks of raw milk as it relates to bird flu were highlighted on Tuesday when Raw Farm, LLC voluntarily recalled all raw whole milk and cream products still on store shelves after multiple detections of bird flu virus in the company’s milk and dairy supply, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Officials have also placed the farm under quarantine and suspended any new distribution of its raw milk, cream, kefir, butter and cheese products produced on or after Nov. 27.
As of Friday, no human cases of bird flu have been linked to products from Raw Farm.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it considers exposure to raw milk without personal protective equipment a “high-risk exposure event” for bird flu.
The U.S. has been facing an outbreak of bird flu, or avian influenza, since April, when the first human case was reported.
As of Thursday, 58 human cases have been confirmed in seven states, according to CDC data. California has the highest number of cases with 32.
Almost all confirmed cases have had direct contact with infected cattle or infected livestock. So far, all bird flu cases in the U.S. have been mild, and patients have all recovered after receiving antiviral medication.
Signs and symptoms of infection in humans often include sore throat, cough, fever, runny or stuffy nose, headache, muscle or body aches, fatigue and shortness of breath. Less common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and seizures.
Infections can range from no symptoms or mild illness, such as flu-like symptoms, to more severe illness, such as pneumonia that could require hospitalizations, the CDC says.
