Media Monitoring: 2 – 8 May

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) accounts for the most significant number of deaths from female reproductive system cancers.
A new paper published in the British Journal of Cancer explores the potential utility of glycoproteins as biomarkers of EOC.
In the future, these types of models might allow the diagnosis of EOC to be made from a blood test.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has set out its strategic approach to artificial intelligence (AI).
The MHRA welcomed the publication of the Government’s white paper ‘A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation’, published in 2023, and have taken significant steps in the past 12 months to adopt its recommendations in the work we do based on five key strategic principles.
These principles encompass safety, security and robustness; appropriate transparency and explainability; fairness, accountability and governance; and contestability and redress.

DSIT announces further appointments to its leadership team including Professor Christopher Johnson as Chief Scientific Advisor and new expert non-executives Dominic Field and Liz Cohen to the Departmental Board
The department also confirms the re-appointment of Shonnel Malani as Lead Non-Executive Director alongside other non-executives from DSIT’s start-up board – Melissa Di Donato, Jason Chin, Saul Klein

Scientists have found that some immune cells hunt down cancer in the body, a discovery that could lead to personalised treatments for advanced breast cancer.
The study identified features of cells called immune B cells which make them successful at targeting tumours, including when cancer has spread to a different part of the body.
Researchers have developed a tool to identify these anti-cancer cells which could lead to improved, personalised immunotherapies

Prisoners diagnosed with cancer are more likely than people in the general population to die of the disease, according to research.
The study, published as three linked papers by the Lancet Oncology and eClinicalMedicine, found that only 27% of cancer patients in jail were diagnosed following an urgent two-week referral, compared with 37% among the general population cohort.
They were also three times less likely to be diagnosed via screening.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA) have agreed to renew their strategic Collaborative Agreement to support the scaling of health innovations to the end of 2025 to jointly accelerate health impact.
The collaboration was established in the beginning of 2021 to create a shared agenda and enable close collaboration and complementarity between the two entities to promote and facilitate the demand, supply, assessment and scale-up of proven health innovations for the benefit of low- and middle-income countries.