Media Monitoring: 17 – 23 June

Bringing down late stage cancer diagnoses and levelling out health inequalities are central to the new 10-year cancer strategy published by the Scottish Government.
Their figures suggest that more than two in five (42%) cancers are caught at stages three and four; the plan aims to cut this to less than a quarter (24%) by 2033 – the equivalent of around 5,000 fewer diagnoses.
The 10-year strategy has been released alongside a three-year action plan that comprises 136 steps to level up every area of cancer care.

The funding will provide world-class facilities and equipment to help maintain the UK’s position as a science superpower in line with the ambitions set out in the government’s Science and Technology Framework.
Funding includes a new £34 million digital infrastructure for sharing and reuse of biological and biomedical science data.

Some patients’ cancer became incurable as a direct result of long waits, says Macmillan Cancer Support.
At least 100,000 people across the UK have had their lives put at risk over the last decade because of delays to them getting tested or treated for cancer, claims a new report by MacMillan.
The report blames health ministers across the United Kingdom’s four nations for a lack of funding and not tackling cancer staff shortages.

Researchers from the University of Dundee have made an important discovery that helps explain why south Asian type 2 diabetes patients are diagnosed at a younger age than Europeans and subsequently experience poorer outcomes.
The researchers, led by Professor Colin Palmer from Dundee’s School of Medicine and Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centres, the largest clinical network of diabetes care in India, have shown a genetic basis for the significant differences in age at diagnosis of type 2 diabetes for the first time.
They identified two genetic variants associated with age of diagnosis that are much more common in South Indian populations than in patients of European ancestry. It is hoped that understanding these ethnicity-specific genetic factors will enable better clinical management.

People at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease exhibit changes in their gut bacteria long before symptoms appear.
It has been known for some time that people with disease symptoms have different microbiomes, but this study “moves the goalposts” earlier in the disease’s progression, according to an expert.
Although more research is needed to understand the relationship between these microbiotas and Alzheimer’s, physicians may be able to forgo expensive diagnostic procedures in favor of relatively simple analyses of gut bacteria.

Early warning signs of diseases caused by dysfunctional levels of stress hormones could be spotted more easily thanks to a new wearable device developed by endocrine researchers.
The new collaborative research led by the University of Bristol, University of Birmingham and University of Bergen has the potential to revolutionise how diseases of the stress hormone system are diagnosed and treated.
A major problem has been that understanding the meaning of a hormone test is very difficult or impossible if only a single time point is taken, since this fails to consider hormonal rhythms. This in turn leads to diagnostic delay and missed opportunities for treatment intervention.

The world’s first saliva pregnancy test has hit the market, shaking up a market dominated by urine-based tests.
The kit, named Salistick™, was developed by Israeli startup Salignostics, with distribution in the UK and Ireland handled by Abingdon Health.
The test yields results in 5 to 15 minutes following a 90-second swab of the mouth.

A new affordable HPV test gives hope that screening can occur more widely and easily and therefore work towards eradicating cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is almost exclusively caused by the HPV infection.
A new study exhibits the new test, showing how it can be performed in just 45 minutes and costs only five dollars.