Cuando la misión CRS-35 de SpaceX para la NASA se acople a la Estación Espacial Internacional el 15 de octubre, llevará dos experimentos del

Pronto habrá más experimentos en órbita terrestre baja: la NASA otorgó recientemente a Cedars-Sinai una subvención de $10 millones del programa NASA In Space Production Applications (InSPA), que financiará proyectos en seis misiones adicionales durante los próximos cuatro años. La investigación se llevará a cabo en colaboración continua con Axiom Space y BioServe Space Technologies.

En el vuelo de este mes, uno de los experimentos, llamado Stellar Stem Cells Mission 3, se centrará en la producción de organoides cardíacos y cerebrales. Estos pequeños grupos tridimensionales de células se crean a partir de células madre pluripotentes inducidas, que se han reprogramado para poder convertirse prácticamente en cualquier tipo de célula. Los organoides imitan parte de la estructura y función de los órganos reales.

El segundo experimento estudiará la creación de esferoides cardíacos: agrupaciones tridimensionales más sencillas de células cardíacas que pueden usarse de manera similar, pero son más rápidos y fáciles de crear.

“Seguimos investigando si crear organoides y esferoides en el entorno de microgravedad del espacio ofrece ventajas frente a crearlos en la Tierra”, dijo Arun Sharma, PhD, director del Centro de Investigación de Medicina Espacial y titular de la Cátedra Ben Winters de Medicina Regenerativa en Cedars-Sinai. “Esto podría traducirse en ventajas para la ciencia y para los pacientes en la Tierra”.

Stellar Stem Cells amplía un experimento anterior que viajó al espacio en 2025.

“En aquella misión vimos una formación tridimensional de organoides tan extraordinaria que la NASA amplió nuestra subvención InSPA para cubrir este vuelo adicional”, dijo Clive Svendsen, PhD, director ejecutivo del Instituto de Medicina Regenerativa Board of Governors y, al igual que Sharma, coinvestigador de la subvención. “Esta misión es de mayor escala y nos permite analizar más los organoides durante el vuelo y después de traerlos de vuelta a la Tierra”.

Para crear los esferoides cardíacos, los investigadores combinan células del músculo cardíaco con células que recubren los vasos sanguíneos del corazón.

“En la Tierra, usamos una centrífuga para hacer que se junten. En el espacio, se agrupan por sí solas porque las células pueden flotar y se atraen entre sí”, explicó Sharma.

Los investigadores esperan determinar si pueden aprovechar la microgravedad espacial para producir grandes cantidades de esferoides. También estudiarán la formación de vasos sanguíneos en los esferoides, que se ha logrado de forma limitada en la Tierra, pero podría mejorar en condiciones de microgravedad.

El proyecto recibe financiamiento del premio Igniting Innovation del Laboratorio Nacional de la Estación Espacial Internacional, diseñado para apoyar la ciencia básica.

Maedeh Mozneb, PhD, Madelyn Arzt y Jemima Moses, integrantes del laboratorio de Sharma, viajarán al Centro Espacial Kennedy, en Florida, para preparar los experimentos para este lanzamiento. Mientras estos proyectos despegan, los laboratorios de Sharma y Svendsen comenzarán a trabajar en proyectos financiados por la nueva subvención de la NASA.

En estas misiones a la Estación Espacial Internacional, los investigadores intentarán demostrar que las células madre pluripotentes inducidas humanas y los organoides derivados de ellas pueden producirse en lotes a gran escala, siguiendo las mejores prácticas de fabricación establecidas. Las misiones se centrarán en crear modelos de enfermedades y terapias con células y organoides cardíacos, cerebrales y pancreáticos.

“Nuestros experimentos en la Tierra nos han demostrado que estas células y los organoides que creamos a partir de ellas tienen muchísimas aplicaciones”, dijo Svendsen. “Si podemos aprovechar la microgravedad espacial para aumentar nuestra producción, podremos lograr mucho más”.

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Elad told Becker’s Clinical Leadership that patients are placing greater trust in AI than in conventional internet searches because AI tools generally draw from stronger, cited sources, whereas search engine results can easily direct patients to nonevidence-based information.

“I think patients probably view AI as a little bit more authoritative than they ever felt that their Google searches were before,” he said.

Elad told Becker’s Clinical Leadership some patients walk in with printouts of their AI queries, while others simply bring a list of generated questions to discuss.

“Usually, they’re apologetic about it, like, ‘Oh, you know, I’m not questioning you, but this is what ChatGPT said,’” he said.

Elad told Becker’s Clinical Leadership his bigger concern is accuracy: While doctors are trained to spot flawed AI information, patients might not recognize errors.

“I worry that patients may not be able to always discern when the advice they’re getting from AI is either inappropriate for their clinical situation, or worse, actually erroneous or a hallucination,” he said.

Elad told Becker’s Clinical Leadership he encourages patients to share their AI findings with their physicians.

“I don’t know of any clinician here who is offended by a patient doing their own research and coming in,” he said.

Some patients also are beginning to use personal AI to record appointments, which under California law requires a doctor’s consent. Elad told Becker’s Clinical Leadership he personally wouldn’t object, but he warned that AI notes often contain errors that need physician review to ensure accuracy.

“I would be careful if I was a patient using ambient AI to record a medical visit because it might misunderstand something or misconstrue something, and in that situation, you don’t have the benefit of your physician reviewing it,” he said.

Read the complete article from Becker's Clinical Leadership.

A Gulf War veteran who began racing in her 60s, Kennedy earned a bronze medal at a World Cup in Italy in 2025, securing a spot on the U.S. team for her first Para-Cycling World Road Championships. She went on to finish fifth in the time trial at the World Championships and is now a member of the U.S. Paralympics Cycling team.

Her journey to becoming an elite para-athlete has included serious illness, injuries and other setbacks. Through it all, Kennedy has drawn on the resilience and problem-solving skills she developed during more than 15 years of military service.

“You learn that, OK, you have an obstacle. What is the obstacle and how do we solve it? And what’s the goal?” Kennedy said. “All of that goes back to my military training. You just don’t give up.”

Now, following a year marked by significant health challenges, Kennedy is back on her bike and working toward a return to international competition—with her sights set on competing in the LA28 Paralympic Games Para-Cycling Road event.

A Veteran’s Resilience

Kennedy served in both the U.S. Air Force and Army, including Army service during the Gulf War.

She credits her military training with teaching her to remain focused and make decisions under pressure—skills that have followed her from military service to international competition.

“Sometimes we go through experiences where we’re pushed beyond what we think we’re capable of doing,” Kennedy said.

Years after leaving the military, Kennedy developed ataxia, a neurological condition that affects balance. She eventually discovered para-cycling and began competing in her 60s.

Finding Answers at Cedars-Sinai

Earlier this year, Kennedy’s training was interrupted by a series of complex health problems, including severe allergic reactions, pneumonia and sepsis.

After struggling to access specialty care near her home in Tucson, Arizona, Kennedy was connected with Cedars-Sinai through the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Medical Network.

Cedars-Sinai is one of 11 medical institutions in the network, which provides Team USA athletes access to specialized care at Cedars-Sinai. Additionally, Cedars-Sinai is the Official Medical Provider of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“It helped me bridge the gap between no care and finally getting connected with all the specialists I need to see,” Kennedy said. “I can’t even put into words how great it was.”

Kennedy was evaluated by specialists across multiple disciplines, including pulmonologist Isabel Pedraza, MD, director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Cedars-Sinai.

Pedraza evaluated breathing problems Kennedy experienced during intense exercise and suspected that some symptoms previously attributed to asthma were related to vocal cord dysfunction.

“Understanding what is causing an athlete’s symptoms is important because even conditions that appear similar can require very different approaches,” Pedraza said. “Our goal is to understand the whole patient and help them safely return to the activities that matter most to them.”

Kennedy returned to Cedars-Sinai for follow-up care and continued consulting with Pedraza as she worked to establish pulmonary care closer to home.

Back on the Bike

Kennedy’s return to competition took another unexpected detour over the summer when she was hospitalized with a severe case of Valley fever and pneumonia.

Her medical issues in 2026 prevented her from earning a spot on the 2026 Para-Cycling Road World Championship team, but Kennedy hasn’t abandoned her goals.

She is riding again and gradually rebuilding strength and working toward a return to the national team and international competition.

“I love to ride my bike,” Kennedy said. “That’s number one. And that’s good for my health.”

Service Beyond Veterans Day

As Veterans Day approaches, Kennedy hopes the holiday encourages people to consider the needs of veterans throughout the year.

“A lot of people focus on it for one day, but it’s something that should be a focus every single day,” Kennedy said.

For Kennedy, the determination that carried her through military service continues to guide her as an athlete. She remains focused on the goal ahead: competing at the LA28 Paralympic Games.

As the oldest woman in the world competing in elite para-cycling, Kennedy knows reaching that goal is ambitious. But she isn’t letting age—or disability—define what she believes is possible.

“Age or disability should never be an obstacle,” Kennedy said. “Anything is possible.”

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Ask a Doc—What's Walking Pneumonia?

Advani told Verywell Health there is no universally recommended number of times to chew food, although chewing is a crucial first step in digestion.

“Chewing changes the way we approach the communication between our brain and the gut when it comes to eating food,” she said. “Then we store that food in our gastrointestinal tract for it to be processed.”

Advani told Verywell Health that because some foods have a tougher texture than others, she recommends chewing until the food is soft enough to be properly broken down in the body, which may mean about 20 to 30 chews for tougher items.

She emphasized that the pace of eating is more important than the number of chews and suggested pausing during meals to assess whether you still feel hungry or are comfortably satisfied.

“We’re often trying to finish our meals quickly so we can get to our next task,” Advani told Verywell Health. “But for your personal wellness, sitting down an additional 10 minutes and slowing down your pace of eating is the best way to go. It helps you feel fuller faster and then helps you extract the nutrients that you need to.”

She suggested spending about 15 to 20 minutes per meal, setting down the fork between bites, putting away distractions such as phones, and focusing on taking smaller bites.

Read the complete article from Verywell Health.

The agentic AI packages, called ASAREE, Memstara and GENASYS, are available online and free of charge. The hope, investigators say, is for members of the public to use these tools, learn from them and repurpose them.

“I view this accessibility as integral to our mission at Cedars-Sinai, which is dedicated to improving the human condition,” said Jason Moore, PhD, chair of the Department of Computational Biomedicine at Cedars-Sinai. “Our team also hopes to learn a lot from the community. As they engage with the software, they will give us ideas that help us improve and extend it.”

Moore said that commercial agentic AI systems often lack transparency, which is a special concern for scientific endeavors.

“Agentic AI systems are complicated,” Moore said. “They must choose and organize AI agents—programs that can autonomously complete complex tasks—to do the work, and then also critique the work, perform quality control and evaluate ethics.”

For example, Moore said, if you give the system a problem to solve, and it produces a result, but you have no idea how it got there, how can you trust the result?

“Our software aims to combat this lack of transparency,” Moore said.

The first two software packages help design agentic AI systems.

ASAREE is short for Analytical Sandbox for Agentic Research, Engineering, and Experimentation. Investigators can direct ASAREE to investigate a hypothesis such as: Would a particular type of software improve the reliability of the workflow? The system tests whether the hypothesis is correct by trying out various options.

Memstara draws on existing knowledge about relationships among genes, diseases, biomarkers and other factors to generate original, biologically informed hypotheses, much as a human scientist does. The hypotheses can then be tested using real-world biomedical data.

The third software package fine-tunes the agentic AI system after it is created. GENASYS is short for Genetic Evolution of Networked Agent Systems. It automatically modifies agentic AI workflows, repeatedly evaluating alternative configurations and selecting those that perform best for a given biomedical task.

Moore said that although ASAREE and GENASYS were developed with biomedicine in mind, they could be applied to agentic AI systems for studies in economics, engineering, meteorology and other scientific disciplines.

He said Memstara at present has a more limited potential because it incorporates a specific knowledge base, but it could be adapted to work with different knowledge bases.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Cedars-Sinai in the News

‘Closer Than We Have Ever Been’: 9 Leaders on Cancer Vaccines | Becker’s Hospital Review
Robert Figlin, MD 

This Is Why Cold Weather Makes Your Joints Ache, According to Doctors | Prevention
Jeffrey Zarin, MD

The Ideal Walking Time for Better Blood Sugar, Lower Blood Pressure, and Weight Loss | Verywell Health
Christopher Lee, MD 

This Week in Science: Mysterious X-rays, Movement and Learning, and Memory Formation | NPR News/All Things Considered
Ueli Rutishauser, PhD 

These Handwriting Signs May Be Linked to Cognitive Decline in Older Adults, Study Suggests | HuffPost
Zaldy Tan, MD, MPH 

Improve Your Balance in Just a Few Minutes a Day With These Expert-Recommended Training Tips | CNN
Natasha Trentacosta, MD 

The Best Breakfast for Heart Health, According to Cardiologists | Verywell Health
Sri Palanisamy, MD 

‘Black Box’ Medical AI Can Deepen Health Disparities, Researcher Says | Association of Health Care Journalists
Tiffani Bright, PhD 

Schooled by AI: The Evolving Role of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education | Association of Health Care Journalists
Graciela Gonzalez-Hernandez, PhD 

Metabolic Interventions Improve Cancer Treatment Delivery | Drug Discovery Online
Jun Gong, MD 

How Capitation and Crowded EDs Shape Who Gets Access to Menin Inhibitors in AML | American Journal of Managed Care Online
Noah Merin, MD, PhD

Faculty Publications

Biomedical Sciences

Intensive vs More Intensive Lipid-Lowering Therapy and Plaque Regression in Statin-Naive Patients: Prespecified Analyses From the FLOWPROMOTE Randomized Clinical Trial. Mortensen, Martin Bødtker, Nadia Iraqi, Niels Peter Rønnow Sand, Martin Busk, Jesper Møller Jensen, Kristian Tækker Madsen, Erik Lerkevang Grove, Damini Dey, Helle Kanstrup, Kamilla Pedersen, Ole Norling Mathiassen, Susanne Hosbond, Hans Erik Bøtker, Jagat Narula, and Bjarne Linde Nørgaard. JAMA Cardiology, October, e264788.

The Right Ventricle in Focus: State-of-the-Art CMR Imaging - Challenges, Standards, and Innovations. Gunasekaran, Suvai, George D. Thornton, Alan C. Kwan, Haoran Li, Sébastien Roujol, Franz Gerald Greil, Birgitta Velthuis, and David A. Bluemke. Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, October, 102822.

Cardiac Surgery

Animal Models of HFpEF: Getting Closer to the Human Syndrome? Sandoval, Erik S., David J. Lefer, and Thomas M. Vondriska. American Journal of Physiology. Heart and Circulatory Physiology, October.

Taxes and Tolls Across the Bridge. Tchouta, Lise N., and Dominic Emerson. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, October, S0003-4975(26)01089-1.

Cardiology

2026 Update on the COVADIS Diagnostic Criteria of International Standardization for Microvascular Angina. Ong, Peter, Paolo G. Camici, John Beltrame, Colin Berry, Filippo Crea, Javier Escaned, Tim van de Hoef, Juan Carlos Kaski, Carl Pepine, Udo Sechtem, Hiroaki Shimokawa, Christopher Zeitz, and Noel Bairey Merz. International Journal of Cardiology 466 (January): 134993.

A Randomised Non-Inferiority Trial of CCTA Guidance Versus IVUS Guidance for PCI: Rationale and Design of the P4 Clinical Trial. Tajima, Atomu, Taito Arai, Hirofumi Ohashi, Frederic Bouisset, Marta Belmonte, Nikolaos Stalikas, Ziad Ali, Tetsuya Amano, Simone Biscaglia, Alan Bagnall, Kaoru Tanaka, Thomas Engstrøm, Timothy Fairbairn, Richard Good, Daniel A. Jones, Raj R. Makkar, Hasan Jilaihawi, Bálint Szilveszter, Michael Mæng, Nicolaj Brejnholt Støttrup, Bjarne Linde Nørgaard, Peter O’Kane, Niels Thue Olsen, Divaka Perera, Saima Mushtaq, Gianluca Pontone, Ian Purcell, Yader Sandoval, Adriaan Wilgenhof, Jeroen Sonck, James C. Spratt, Gianluca Mincione, Giulio Stefanini, Eric Van Belle, Carlo Zivelonghi, Daniel Munhoz, Koshiro Sakai, Yosuke Miyazaki, Salvatore Brugaletta, Abdul Ihdayhid, Jonathon Leipsic, Brian Ko, Antonio Bartorelli, Bernard De Bruyne, Ganeev Malhotra, Bruno R. da Costa, Takuya Mizukami, Daniele Andreini, and Carlos Collet. EuroIntervention: Journal of EuroPCR in Collaboration With the Working Group on Interventional Cardiology of the European Society of Cardiology 22 (21): e1168–76.

Antithrombotic Therapy After Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion: The SIMPLAAFY Randomized Clinical Trial. Reddy, Vivek Y., Walid I. Saliba, Thomas Waggoner, Devi G. Nair, Stanislav Weiner, Rudolph Evonich, Michael Hoskins, Andrew Dublin, Michael Rinaldi, Gaurang Gandhi, Jonathan W. Dukes, Madhu Reddy, David DeLurgio, Venkat R. Iyer, Ganesh Venkataraman, Ashish Sadhu, Vamsee Yaganti, Kevin Trulock, Douglas N. Gibson, Mohamad Alkhouli, Manish Shah, Shephal K. Doshi, Andrea Natale, Megan Coylewright, C. Michael Gibson, Ahmed A. Kolkailah, Wael A. Jaber, Krystal Leger, Elizabeth Matznick, Thomas Christen, Brad S. Sutton, Kenneth M. Stein, and Saibal Kar. JAMA, November, e2621361.

Artificial Intelligence Detection of Aortic Valve Calcification on Routine Noncontrast Chest CT: A Real-World Cohort. Koren, Ofir, Vivek Patel, Orit Wimpfheimer, Alexander Kukuev, Parker Chu, Harsh Jain, Kazuki Suruga, Hidemasa Shitan, Shiri Hassid, Daniel Ng, Shir Hofstetter, and Raj R. Makkar. JACC. Advances, October, 103446.

Clinical Impact of Multiple-Clip Implantation for Residual Mitral Regurgitation After Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair. Nagasaka, Takashi, Vivek Patel, Kazuki Suruga, Hidemasa Shitan, Yuchao Guo, Ofir Koren, Alon Shechter, Dhairya Patel, Tarun Chakravarty, Aakriti Gupta, Hideki Ishii, Hasan Jilaihawi, Moody Makar, Mamoo Nakamura, and Raj R. Makkar. Journal of the American Heart Association 15 (21): e050013.

Coronary CT Angiography Versus Intravascular Ultrasound Guidance for PCI. Collet, Carlos, Takuya Mizukami, Frederic Bouisset, Gianluca Pontone, Carlo Zivelonghi, Daniel A. Jones, Adriaan Wilgenhof, Nicolaj Brejnholt Støttrup, Bálint Szilveszter, Kaoru Tanaka, Gianluca Mincione, Yader Sandoval, Ian Purcell, James C. Spratt, Divaka Perera, Niels Thue Olsen, Tetsuya Amano, Peter O’Kane, Simone Biscaglia, Hasan Jilaihawi, Ziad Ali, Eric Van Belle, Richard Good, Taito Arai, Brian Ko, Jeroen Sonck, Alan Bagnall, Timothy Fairbairn, Antonio Bartorelli, Giulio Stefanini, Jonathon Leipsic, Thomas Engstrøm, Bjarne Linde Nørgaard, Bernard De Bruyne, Bruno R. da Costa, Daniele Andreini, and P4 Trial Investigators. The New England Journal of Medicine, November.

Impact of CKD and Hemodialysis on Treatment of Severely Calcified Lesions: The ECLIPSE Trial. George, Pratheesh, Krishna Santosh Vemuri, Richard A. Shlofmitz, Suhail Dohad, Thom Dahle, Andres M. Pineda, Kendrick A. Shunk, Carlye Kraemer, Philippe Généreux, Ajay J. Kirtane, and Gregg W. Stone. Circulation. Cardiovascular Interventions, November.

Metabolic Niches: MALDI Imaging Reveals Lipidomic Heterogeneity in the Human Heart. Osumi, Kayla M., Evan P. Kransdorf, Daniel Manzoor, Anja Karlstaedt, and Elizabeth K. Neumann. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry 37 (11): 2794–2802.

Percutaneous Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement for Symptomatic Mitral Regurgitation: 2-Year Outcomes From the ENCIRCLE Trial. Webb, John, Mayra E. Guerrero, Kamran I. Muhammad, Adam B. Greenbaum, Alejandro Vasquez, J. Bradley Oldemeyer, Thom G. Dahle, Brian P. O’Neill, Charanjit Rihal, Michael Morse, Evelio Rodriguez, Mark Russo, Raj R. Makkar, Brian Whisenant, Pradeep Yadav, Vinod Thourani, Ignacio Inglessis-Azuaje, Nathaniel Langer, Samir Kapadia, Curtiss Stinis, Matthew Price, Matthew Summers, Bassem M. Chehab, Brett Grizzell, Jason Foerst, Ricardo Yaryura, Jorge Castellanos, John Wang, George Zorn, Peter Tadros, Oluseun Alli, Daniel Pu, Santiago Garcia, Michael J. Mullen, Robert Boone, Philipp Blanke, Michael Pham, David A. Baran, Federico M. Asch, David V. Daniels, and ENCIRCLE trial Investigators. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, November, S0735-1097(26)10170-3.

Regional Differences in Outcomes in Adults After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) for Stable Ischemic Heart Disease. Akman, Zafer, Dae Yong Park, Raiza Rossi, Armin Nouri, Darrick Li, Jiun-Ruey Hu, and Michael G. Nanna. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, October, S0025-6196(26)18824-7.

TAVR in Patients With Moderate Aortic Stenosis With At-Risk Features. Généreux, Philippe, Raj R. Makkar, Philippe Pibarot, Jeroen J. Bax, Brian R. Lindman, Kamran Muhammad, J. Bradley Oldemeyer, Mark Pirwitz, Colin M. Barker, Vinod H. Thourani, Pradeep K. Yadav, Roberto Rodriguez, Justin Strote, Rahul Sakhuja, Ramzi Khalil, Rahul Sharma, Adnan Chhatriwalla, Jacob M. Mishell, Biswajit Kar, Sameer Gafoor, Joseph Walsh, Daniel Spoon, Andrew Frutkin, Andrei Pop, Nicolas M. Van Mieghem, Ruby Satpathy, Kenji Ando, Joseph Montarello, John Webb, Sreekanth Vemulapalli, David J. Cohen, Aakriti Gupta, Brandon Park, Heather Prince, Philipp Blanke, Michael Mack, Martin B. Leon, and PROGRESS Trial Investigators. The New England Journal of Medicine, November.

TECTONIC CAD: Pivotal IDE Evaluation of Coronary Intravascular Lithotripsy for Severely Calcified Lesions. Secemsky, Eric A., Ziad A. Ali, Evan Shlofmitz, Bassem M. Chehab, Allen Jeremias, William Nicholson, Pratik Sandesara, Sameh Sayfo, Louis Verreault-Julien, Azeem Latib, Christopher Haddad, Rudy Haddad, Robert C. Stoler, Eric A. Osborn, Oliver Abela, James Smith, Gopi Manthripragada, Itsik Ben-Dor, Hayder Hashim, Daniel Kiss, Jonathan Rosenberg, Mubbasher Syed, Yader Sandoval, Nirat Beohar, Salman S. Allana, Salvatore Mannino, Torrey Schmidt, Anderson Mehrle, James D. Flaherty, Osama Mukarram, Calvin Choi, Suhail Dohad, Issam Moussa, Rebecca Chester, Jeffrey J. Popma, Akiko Maehara, Gayle Johnson, Carlye Kraemer, Sandeep C. Pingle, Brad J. Martinsen, Jennifer M. Meinen, Ethan C. Korngold, and Kathleen E. Kearney. JACC. Cardiovascular Interventions, October, S1936-8798(26)02694-4.

Imaging

Event-to-Payment Latency in Physicians With Imaging-Related Allegations: NPDB Reports Processed 2004-2025. Hassankhani, Amir, Melika Amoukhteh, Cem Bilgin, Payam Jannatdoust, Parya Valizadeh, and Ali Gholamrezanezhad. Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR, October, S1546-1440(26)00549-1.

Medicine

A Practical Guide to Proficiency Testing for Clinical Histocompatibility Laboratories. Hod-Dvorai, Reut, Olga Timofeeva, Nicholas K. Brown, Sam Ho, Valia Bravo-Egana, Christina Bishop, Taba Kheradmand, Alan M. Sanfilippo, Anna L. Greenshields, Heather Eilrich, Elaine Forrest O’Shields, William Hoffman, Xiaohai Zhang, Joseph Abraha, Ahmed Mostafa, and American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI) Professional Standards Division. Human Immunology 87 (12): 112111.

Breaking Barriers: Gut Pathobionts Promote Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Chojnacka, Katarzyna, and Sergei I. Grivennikov. Cancer Discovery 16 (11): 2214–16.

Evaluation of Diabetic Ketoacidosis Outcomes Following the Adoption of a Computer-Based Variable-Rate Insulin Infusion Algorithm. Wei, Margaret, Omar Kais Ibrahim, Jacqueline Marie Deirmenjian, Tochukwu Madu, Gian Paolo Simone, Steve Kim, Elizabeth Vi Nguyen, Cameron Escovedo, Hai Tran, Shawna Masih, Nichole McCann Ballweg, Elizabeth Zakis, Jennifer Ting-Chan, and Roma Gianchandani. Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, November, 19322968261501915.

Gene-by-Sleep Duration Interaction for Glycemic Traits in More Than 480,000 Individuals. Wang, Heming, Pavithra Nagarajan, Clint L. Miller, Amy R. Bentley, Raymond Noordam, Kenneth E. Westerman, Michael R. Brown, Aldi T. Kraja, Jeffrey R. O’Connell, Karen Schwander, Changwei Li, Mihir M. Sanghvi, Lifelines Cohort Study, et al. Diabetes, October, db260184.

Global Perspectives on MASCC Clinical Practice Guidelines: Awareness, Implementation and Insights to Inform Future Updates. Abdalla-Aslan, Ragda, Paola Alberti, Nicole Blijlevens, Pierluigi Bonomo, Joanne Bowen, Julia S. Bruno, Raymond J. Chan, Yin Ting Cheung, Andrew Davies, Mellar Davis, Sharon Elad, Joel Epstein, Darren Fernandes, Jason L. Freedman, Nicolas H. Hart, Hirotoshi Iihara, Michael Jefford, Daniel Peter Johnstone, Amber S. Kleckner, Bogda Koczwara, Grigorios Kotronoulas, Emma Munro, Barbara Murphy, Midori Nakagaki, Enrique Soto-Perez-de-Celis, Stephen Sonis, Nikolaos Tsoukalas, Anna Ugalde, Corina van den Hurk, Hannah Rose Wardill, and Paolo Bossi. Supportive Care in Cancer, 34 (11): 1187.

Prognostic Significance of Early Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA Trajectories After Kidney Transplantation. Sureshkumar, Kalathil, Jeffrey A. Klein, Dhiren Kumar, Nadiesda Costa, Renata Glehn-Ponsirenas, Peale Chuang, Ling Shen, James Lu, David Wojciechowski, Pranjal Jain, Yihung Huang, Alexander Wiseman, Edmund Huang, Stuart Knechtle, Suphamai Bunnapradist, Rafael Villicana, Puneet Sood, Anil Paramesh, Rashikh A. Choudhury, James Piper, Jiashu Xue, Yasir Qazi, Divya Jain, Sandesh Parajuli, Nicolae Leca, Didier A. Mandelbrot, Jonathan Bromberg, Thin Thin Maw, Daniel C. Brennan, Tarek Alhamad, and KOAR Investigators. Transplantation, November.

Regulatable Membrane-Bound IL-15 Engineered TIL Cell Therapy for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Resistant Advanced Melanoma: Pooled Analysis of Phase 1 and 1/2 Trials. Amaria, Rodabe N., Jason A. Chesney, Allison S. Betof, Gino K. In, Alexander N. Shoushtari, Tirrell T. Johnson, Omid Hamid, Yazan Samhouri, Michael A. Davies, Hussein A. Tawbi, Isabella C. Glitza Oliva, Bulent Arman Aksoy, Amanda M. Kelly, Raina Duan, Prakash Prabhakar, Giridharan Ramsingh, Madan Jagasia, and Parameswaran Hari. Nature Medicine, November.

Sebaceous Heterotopia of the Esophagus. Fehlman, Jared, Kevin Waters, and Amrit K. Kamboj. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 101 (11): 2002–3.

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Pancreatic Polypeptide Levels in Healthy Individuals and Individuals With Diabetes. Yang, Jie, Xiaoyuan Wang, Yijun Liu, Yifan Wang, Stephen J. Pandol, Yinqi Lv, Xiaoyu Li, and Ling Li. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, October, 113615.

Timing of Long COVID Improvement in Prospectively Followed RECOVER-Adult Participants. Reeder, Harrison T., Sarah E. Donohue, Jeffrey N. Martin, Mady Hornig, Jarrod M. Mosier, Hassan Ashktorab, Ornina Atieh, Andra L. Blomkalns, Hassan Brim, Yu Chen, Melissa M. Cortez, Nathan B. Erdmann, RECOVER-Adult Cohort, et al. Annals of Internal Medicine, November.

Validation of an Intrinsic Capacity Index and the Effects of Aspirin in Older Males and Females: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial. Ryan, Joanne, Aung Zaw Zaw Phyo, Maud Wieczorek, Sara Espinoza, Robyn L. Woods, Alice Owen, Kerry Sheets, Suzanne G. Orchard, Rory Wolfe, A. R. M. Saifuddin Ekram, Steve Horvath, Anne Murray, and Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari. GeroScience, October.

Neurosurgery

A Digital Twin Roadmap for Adult Spinal Deformity. Azad, Tej D., S. Farzad Maroufi, Lalithkumar Seenivasan, Michael M. Safaee, Kristen E. Jones, Elizabeth L. Lord, Camilo A. Molina, Corey T. Walker, Joseph A. Osorio, Javier Pizones, Alekos Theologis, Miranda van Hooff, Mitsuru Yagi, Mathias Unberath, Robert K. Eastlack, Michael P. Kelly, Ferran Pellisé, Christopher P. Ames, and Scoliosis Research Society Adult Spinal Deformity Task Force Senescence Committee. Spine Deformity, November.

Databases, Registries, and Consortia for Pediatric Epilepsy and Functional Neurosurgery: A Scoping Review From the AANS/CNS Pediatric Section Epilepsy and Functional Research Interest Group. Lam, Victor H. K., Aleena Ghafoor, Taylor J. Abel, Kurtis I. Auguste, Ariana Barkley, Marian Michael Bercu, Robert J. Bollo, David J. Bonda, Eisha A. Christian, Jason K. Chu, Jordan Davies, Aria Fallah, Nisha Gadgil, Hannah E. Goldstein, Kimberly Hamilton, Brian W. Hanak, Jason S. Hauptman, Eveline Teresa Hidalgo, Sandi K. Lam, Nealen G. Laxpati, Neena I. Marupudi, Sean D. McEvoy, Robert P. Naftel, Weston T. Northam, Joffre E. Olaya, Chima O. Oluigbo, H. Westley Phillips, Martin G. Piazza, Jeffrey S. Raskin, Jarod L. Roland, James T. Rutka, Afshin Salehi, Nir Shimony, Jesse Skoch, Matthew D. Smyth, Heather S. Spader, Scellig S. D. Stone, Elizabeth Tyler-Kabara, Catherine Wassef, Alexander G. Weil, Howard L. Weiner, Allyson L. Alexander, and George M. Ibrahim. Journal of Neurosurgery. Pediatrics, October, 1–14.

OBGYN

Implementation and Impacts of Maternal and Perinatal Quality Collaboratives Across U.S. States: A Scoping Review. Alvarado, Gabriela, Khadesia Howell, Kortney Floyd James, Mallika Bhandarkar, Sujeong Park, Priya Batra, Chloe E. Bird, Sarah J. Kilpatrick, and Rachel K. Landis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, October, 108628.

SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination in Pregnancy and Child Neurodevelopment at 18 to 30 Months. Hughes, Brenna L., Rebecca G. Clifton, Torri D. Metz, Lynn Yee, Jessica A. de Voest, Monica Longo, T. Michael O’Shea, Kelly Clark, Gail Mallett, Dwight J. Rouse, Alan T. N. Tita, Kelly S. Gibson, Hector Mendez-Figueroa, Hyagriv N. Simhan, John M. Thorp, Samuel Parry, Mary E. Norton, Uma M. Reddy, Catherine Squire Eppes, Sarah J. Kilpatrick, George R. Saade, and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network. JAMA Pediatrics, November, e265142.

The Probe Leads the Scalpel-A New Dimension to Gynaecology Care. Keizerswaard, Jolanda van, Robert A. de Leeuw, Tina Tellum, Gil Dubernard, Pere Barri-Soldevilla, Gernot Hudelist, Gábor Szabó, Alin S. Constantin, Michael R. Wynn-Williams, Wouter Froyman, Kelly N. Wright, Kacey M. Hamilton, Mathew Leonardi, and Judith A. F. Huirne. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, October.

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Athlete Safeguarding-Maintaining the Call to Action. Faustin, Marcia, Katherine H. Rizzone, David W. Kruse, and Jeffrey L. Tanji. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, November.

Patient Perspective on Adjunctive Treatment for Early Onset Scoliosis. Watkins V, Robert G., Vivien Chan, Paal K. Nilssen, Kenneth D. Illingworth, Peter Sturm, Tenner Guillaume, Pernendu Gupta, and David L. Skaggs. Journal of Clinical Orthopaedics and Trauma 83 (December): 103630.

Segmental Arthroscopic Hip Labral Reconstruction Using a Peroneus Longus Allograft. Kody, Michael T., and Michael B. Banffy. Arthroscopy Techniques, October, e70375.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Integrative Spatial Metallomics: A Tutorial Review of Multimodal Elemental Imaging Workflows, Challenges and Opportunities. Kumar, Naina, Nishita Paruchuri, Tracy Punshon, Brian Jackson, Kevin Cornell, Elijah Stommel, Hrishikesh Deosthali, Vismay Ravikumar, Engie Mostafa, Scott Palisoul, Louis Vaickus, Sunita Ho, and Joshua Levy. Analytical Methods: Advancing Methods and Applications, November.

Reproducibility of Lymphovascular Space Invasion Assessment in Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Does Experience Matter? Talia, Karen L., T. Rinda Soong, Takako Kiyokawa, Swati Bhardwaj, Marius-Alexandru Beleaua, Quang Hiep Bui, Terri E. Jones, Sarah E. J. Khan, Asher Krausey, Hiu Yeung Lau, Julia Müller, Adam Šafanda, Wangpan Jackson Shi, Niall Scully, Amitha Thomas, Natsuko Ukai, Joan Wang, Natalie Banet, and Simona Stolnicu. International Journal of Gynecological Pathology, October.

Small Neuroendocrine Proliferations in Columnar Mucosa at or Near the Gastroesophageal Junction: A Finding Potentially Related to Proton Pump Inhibitor Use and/or Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. McCloskey, Audrey, Kevin M. Waters, Michael Kozak, Maha Guindi, Keith K. Lai, Brent K. Larson, and Danielle A. Hutchings. Histopathology, November.

The Ethical Use and Legality of Medical Examiner Data: Preliminary Lessons From the New Mexico Decedent Image Database. Mecklenburg, Kori, Christine Pink, Heather J. H. Edgar, Tyler S. Gibb, Philip J. Kroth, and Shamsi Daneshvari Berry. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 191 (2): e70369. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.70369.

Pediatrics

Human iPSC-Based Skeletal Muscle Model of LAMA2-Related Congenital Muscular Dystrophy. Villalba, Jaquelyn M., Andrea Canahui, Francesca I. Malit, George Lawless, Vladimir Zhemkov, April D. Pyle, Kyu Shik Mun, Sujung Yi, Clive N. Svendsen, and Michelle R. Allen-Sharpley. Skeletal Muscle 16 (1): 39.

Radiation Oncology

Retrospective Analysis of Machine Service Logs and EPID-Based Linac QA to Investigate the Effects of Machine Maintenance and Calibration Events on Beam Characteristics: A Multi-Institutional Study. DeMarco, John, Michael Barnes, Hania Al-Hallaq, Seng Boh Lim, Lana Critchfield, Cory S. Knill, Karl Farrey, Timothy Ritter, Nilendu Gupta, Richard A. Popple, Justin Mikell, Jim Irrer, Mario Perez, and Jean M. Moran. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics 27 (11): e70894.

Surgery

Affibody-Based Approaches as Potential Therapeutics for Breast Cancer: Mechanisms, Applications, and Future Perspectives. Yao, Ru, Keghon Kasparian, Yidong Zhou, Qiang Sun, Armando Giuliano, Bo Pan, Shengxi Chen, and Xiaojiang Cui. Cell Investigation 2 (4): 100106.

From Diagnostics to Survival Prediction: A Systematic Review of Artificial Intelligence Applications in Merkel Cell Carcinoma. Mokhtar, Jonathan, Noora Jatan, Éli Blais, Victoria Zecchin Ferrara, Moshe Assouline, Olivier Mathieu, and Alexandre G. Lellouch. Dermatologic Therapy 2026 (1): 1099619.

STAS in Sub-Lobar Resection: More Questions Than Answers. Bolster, Drew, and Mara B. Antonoff. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, October, S0003-4975(26)01087-8.

Urology

Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen PET/CT Complements MRI for Focal Therapy Selection in Prostate Cancer: A Whole-Mount Histopathologic Study. Sonni, Ida, Zahra Mohammadigoldar, George Furey, Koichiro Kimura, Pranav C. Movva, Adrien Holzgreve, Shadfar Bahri, Tyler Sevco, Alex Chung, Anthony Sisk, Tristan Grogan, Johannes Czernin, Kyunghyun Sung, Jeremie Calais, Scott E. Eggener, Wayne Brisbane, Robert E. Reiter, Steven Raman, and Adam B. Weiner. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, October, jnumed.126.273367.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Ahmanielle Roussell, an organizational communications supervisor at Cedars-Sinai, knows the frustration firsthand. She has had trouble convincing prospective employers that frequent relocations shouldn’t overshadow her advanced degrees, professional experience and ability to contribute.

“It’s often a struggle for us to find the right job and grow in our roles, despite being incredible team contributors,” Roussell said. “The minute you say you’re a military spouse, you can feel the energy change. Interviewers assume we’re short-term contributors because we often have to relocate.”

According to a 2024 U.S. Department of Defense survey of military spouses, the unemployment rate was 24%—six times the national average. Underemployment is another commonly cited challenge. It can mean earning too little, not using one’s abilities or working outside one’s field.

It’s a different story at Cedars- Sinai, a military-supportive employer counting more than 350 veterans, active-duty service members, reservists and military spouses across its hospital, Marina Hospital and Medical Network teams. The health system actively recruits military spouses through the federal Military Spouse Employment Partnership program, which helps spouses of active-duty service members find private sector jobs.

“Military spouses are an underserved community in the shadow of another underserved community,” said Bill McGovern, military program administrator on the Talent Acquisition Team at Cedars-Sinai and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. “They are among the most highly educated and skilled, yet they often struggle professionally because of frequent moves. We are invested in this group because we want to help combat the employment challenges military spouses face.”

At a recent recruitment event at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, Roussell met other military spouses who described feeling overwhelmed, lost and disappointed by their career prospects, despite their degrees, certifications and advanced qualifications.

“Many spouses sacrifice their career aspirations to support their partners, but no one should feel forced to do that—especially when career continuity can do wonders for a military family,” she said. “Military spouses should be able to pursue their dreams alongside their partners.”

Roussell is grateful to have found that opportunity herself.

In 2018, she was working at Cedars-Sinai in a job she loved when her husband called with the news that they were being reassigned to Jacksonville, Florida. Roussell felt as though the air had been sucked out of the room.

“It was painful to put in my resignation,” she said, noting that telework options were not available at the time.

Two years later, as the COVID-19 pandemic expanded remote-work opportunities, her former supervisor called to ask her to return. She happily agreed.

Today, Roussell is working to refine a Cedars-Sinai policy that she hopes will help retain more military-connected employees.

“I don’t want anyone else to have to say goodbye to work they enjoy doing, or struggle to find their footing in a new community and new job,” Roussell said. “At Cedars-Sinai, I have a voice and a platform to advocate for military spouses in a way I never could at previous workplaces.”

Roussell also encourages military spouses to get involved in VetConnect, a Cedars-Sinai employee resource group aimed at fostering connection and camaraderie among military-connected colleagues.

Through VetConnect and fellow teammates, Roussell has met and bonded with other military spouses, including Kasa Hester. A Cedars-Sinai operations analyst, Hester was able to keep her job when the U.S. Air Force relocated her husband and family to San Antonio, Texas, this year.

“I’ve experienced both unemployment and underemployment,” Hester said. “Relocating, settling in, trying to meet people, job hunting and sustaining career growth is incredibly demanding on families. We invest so much time building our careers, yet receiving relocation orders is entirely out of our control.”

Both Hester and Roussell emphasized the resilience and adaptability of military spouses—qualities that make them valuable employees.

“Don’t shut out military spouses or put them all in the same box,” Roussell said. “Have a conversation about what they’re passionate about. Understand their need for flexibility and acknowledge that their skills can be adapted for many different roles. Becoming a military-friendly employer simply takes a little creativity, innovation and flexibility.”

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Support for Nonprofit Education Program Fuels Career Development

Produced naturally by the body and found in red meat and seafood, creatine helps replenish the energy muscles use during short, high-intensity exercise. Because diet alone provides limited amounts, supplements can increase creatine stores in the muscles—improving performance, supporting recovery and helping counter age-related muscle loss.

Zaslow told the Los Angeles Times that while creatine was once viewed strictly as a performance tool for elite power athletes, scientific understanding of its potential benefits has expanded significantly over the last 20 years.

“If you’re not under 18, pregnant or nursing, have kidney or liver disease and aren’t taking other stimulants or are bipolar, I’d recommend it,” she said. “It appears safe to take long-term as long as you don’t have any of those risk factors.”

Zaslow told the Los Angeles Times the benefits may extend to bone health, particularly for people over 40.

“When partnered with resistance training, it can increase bone mineral content and reduce that reabsorption of the bone to help prevent osteopenia and osteoporosis,” she said.

Addressing longstanding myths about the supplement, Zaslow added, “People used to believe creatine caused dehydration and cramps, but it doesn't seem to. If anything, it might protect against cramps and heat issues because it increases the water content in muscles.”

She noted that while creatine poses little risk to people with healthy liver and kidney function, users should consult a doctor and choose reputable, third-party-tested supplements. The Food and Drug Administration generally does not evaluate or approve dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness before they are marketed.

Read the complete article from the Los Angeles Times.

“La última tos me asustó. Se despertó y no podía respirar”, dijo Anita Sanchez, la madre de Angela.

Sanchez llevó rápidamente a Angela con un médico de su ciudad natal, en Sinaloa, México. Después de que los primeros estudios de imagen no ofrecieran resultados concluyentes, llevó a Angela a Los Ángeles para que le hicieran más pruebas. Una tomografía computarizada reveló una pequeña mancha blanca en el pulmón izquierdo de Angela, por lo que la remitieron con Leo Mascarenhas, MD, director de Hematología y Oncología Pediátricas en Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s.

Al examinar detenidamente las imágenes de Angela, Mascarenhas sospechó que se trataba de un tumor pulmonar excepcionalmente raro.

“Examiné sus imágenes y noté que el tumor se originaba en una de las ramas de la tráquea, llamada bronquio. Parecía un carcinoma mucoepidermoide broncopulmonar”, dijo. “Se observa sobre todo en adultos. Pero a lo largo de los años he atendido algunos casos, y puede presentarse en niños, aunque es muy, muy raro”.

El carcinoma mucoepidermoide broncopulmonar es una forma extremadamente rara de cáncer de pulmón que se origina en las glándulas productoras de moco de las vías respiratorias y suele presentarse en adultos. En los niños es excepcional: representa menos de 0.2 casos por cada millón de tumores pediátricos.

Al día siguiente, Andrew Brownlee, MD, cirujano torácico de adultos que atiende principalmente a adultos en el Departamento de Cirugía Jim y Eleanor Randall de Cedars-Sinai, colaboró con Eugene Kim, MD, jefe de Cirugía de Guerin Children’s, para realizar una broncoscopia robótica.

Esta tecnología mínimamente invasiva permite a los médicos tomar biopsias de tumores y examinar los ganglios linfáticos cercanos a través de las vías respiratorias, sin abrir el tórax.

La biopsia confirmó las sospechas de Mascarenhas. Angela tenía un tumor de 3 centímetros alojado junto a una rama de la tráquea en el pulmón izquierdo. Por fortuna, el cáncer no se había extendido a otras partes del cuerpo. La cirugía era la única opción para extirpar el tumor.

“Como madre, creo que podía sentir que algo andaba mal, pero nunca imaginé que fuera tan grave”, dijo Sanchez. “Pero el Dr. Brownlee estaba seguro de que podía extirpar el tumor, así que agradecí que ella estuviera en buenas manos”.

La cirugía tradicional a tórax abierto puede implicar una recuperación más larga, tiempo fuera de la escuela y posibles deformidades de la pared torácica a medida que los niños crecen. En cambio, Brownlee propuso una cirugía asistida por robot y mínimamente invasiva. Angela apenas superaba el peso mínimo necesario para el procedimiento.

“Una de las cosas que nos distingue en Cedars-Sinai es que somos un hospital infantil dentro de un centro médico para adultos”, dijo Brownlee. “Realizamos cirugía torácica robótica en adultos varias veces por semana. Esa experiencia nos permite ofrecer este conocimiento altamente especializado a un niño cuando es apropiado”.

La cirugía fue exitosa. Menos de una semana después de recibir el devastador diagnóstico, a Angela le extirparon el tumor junto con el lóbulo inferior izquierdo del pulmón. Apenas dos días después, recibió el alta del hospital.

Dos años después, Angela, ahora de 14 años, sigue libre de cáncer. Regresa a Los Ángeles cada seis meses para sus consultas de seguimiento con Mascarenhas. En su casa, en Sinaloa, está ocupada viviendo su adolescencia, pasando tiempo con sus hermanos y adaptándose a la escuela secundaria.

“Cuando me dijeron por primera vez que tenía cáncer de pulmón, me sentí nerviosa y asustada. Pero ahora que todo está bien, me siento mucho mejor. Siento que todo va a salir bien”, dijo Angela.

Mascarenhas atribuye el resultado de Angela al equipo multidisciplinario que pudo reunir rápidamente para atenderla. Kim afirma que este enfoque distingue a Guerin Children’s.

“Durante muchos años hemos estado creando una colaboración entre cirugía pediátrica, oncología y cirugía torácica”, dijo Kim. “El objetivo siempre ha sido reunir lo mejor de cada división para ofrecer algo verdaderamente único a nuestros pacientes. Gran parte de esa experiencia incluye técnicas mínimamente invasivas que quizá no estén fácilmente disponibles en hospitales exclusivamente pediátricos”.

Sanchez agradece haber llevado a su hija a Los Ángeles para recibir atención.

“Creo que no podría haber recibido este tipo de atención en ningún otro lugar”, dijo Sanchez. “Tuvimos a los mejores médicos y enfermeros. Ellos son quienes salvaron la vida de mi hija. Y siempre estaré agradecida por eso”.

Lea más en Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Los Cánceres “Imposibles de Detectar”

Presentations will explore advances in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of a wide range of rheumatologic diseases. These chronic conditions can affect the musculoskeletal system and multiple organs, creating significant challenges for patients and clinicians.

Jon Giles, MD, MPH, director of the Inflammatory Arthritis Clinical Center at Cedars-Sinai, will present findings from a study of more than 24,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The study found that cholesterol-lowering statins were underused, even among those with established cardiovascular disease. 

“Patients with rheumatoid arthritis face an increased risk of heart disease, yet too many are missing out on treatments that could help protect them,” Giles said. “These findings highlight the need for rheumatologists to work closely with cardiovascular specialists to ensure patients receive appropriate care.”

Giles is also part of the committee presenting newly developed ACR recommendations for cardiovascular disease screening and management.

Cedars-Sinai experts will be available for media interviews on rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, autoimmune-related lung disease, sarcoidosis, Sjögren’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease-associated arthritis and  cardiovascular complications of inflammatory arthritis.

Research and Clinical Highlights

• Nunzio Bottini, MD, PhD, director of the Kao Autoimmunity Institute at Cedars-Sinai, can share new research on how immune cells contribute to lung damage in rheumatoid arthritis and why some patients with autoimmune-related lung disease respond poorly to rituximab.
• Caroline Jefferies, PhD, professor of Medicine and scientific director of the Center for Research in Women's Health and Sex Differences at Cedars-Sinai, will lead a panel of experts discussing the role environmental and lifestyle factors may play in the development and progression of autoimmune diseases. 
• Mariko Ishimori, MD, associate professor of Medicine and associate director of the Clinical and Translational Research Center at Cedars-Sinai, can discuss findings from a multicenter clinical trial testing an investigational stem cell therapy in patients with severe, treatment-resistant lupus.
• Daniel Wallace, MD, professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, can discuss preliminary findings from a multicenter clinical trial suggesting the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine may reduce lupus activity, fatigue and difficulty concentrating. Wallace also can discuss factors that may predict lupus flares after prolonged remission and new recommendations for diagnosing and monitoring  Sjögren’s  disease.
• Elizabeth Frame, MD, director of the Sarcoidosis Clinic and clinical chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Cedars-Sinai, will present an overview of current treatment approaches and clinical guidelines for sarcoidosis, a complex inflammatory disease that can affect multiple organs. Her presentation will also explore emerging research that could improve treatment of the condition.
• Abin Puravath, MD, a rheumatologist at Cedars-Sinai, can discuss findings on heart disease risk among patients with inflammatory bowel disease who also have ankylosing spondylitis, a form of inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine.
• Lindsy Forbess, MD, associate professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, can discuss how certain blood markers may help identify people at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis before symptoms appear, potentially opening new avenues for earlier diagnosis and prevention.

Media Contact

To schedule an interview with a Cedars-Sinai expert, contact Laura Coverson at laura.coverson@cshs.org or 310-562-1112.

As volunteer chair of the Scientific Sessions 2026 Program Committee, Chikwe led nearly 100 cardiovacular disease subject matter experts from around the world to create a robust program of educational, research and clinical practice content at the meeting.  

Cedars-Sinai Experts

Several other Cedars-Sinai experts will be available for media interviews throughout the meeting, including:

C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, FAHA, director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center, who can discuss preventive care and sex differences in cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association will honor Bairey Merz with the Laennec Clinician-Educator Award & Lecture on Nov. 8 at 3:30 p.m. CST.

Sumeet Chugh, MD, FAHA, vice dean and chief artificial intelligence health research officer, who can comment on AI-related research and clinical advances.

Joseph Ebinger, MD, associate professor of Cardiology and director of the Coronary Intensive Care Unit and Clinical Analytics, who can discuss hypertension care and research.

Christopher Lee, MD, staff physician, who is available to comment on research related to lipoprotein(a), familial hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia.

Michael Shehata, MD, director of the Division of Cardiac Electrophysiology, who can comment on research related to arrhythmia care.   

Janet Wei, MD, FAHA, the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women's Cardiovascular Research, Education and Innovation, who is available to discuss conditions that predominantly affect women, including myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA). 

Media Contact

To arrange media interviews, contact Stephanie Cajigal—who will be on-site at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2026—at stephanie.cajigal@cshs.org or via mobile and What’s App: (United States) +1-347-806-2938.

The study found that earlier TAVR treatment lowered the combined risk of death or a heart-failure event over two years in certain patients with moderate aortic stenosis.

Findings from the PROGRESS clinical trial were published in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented Nov. 2 at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2026 symposium in San Diego.

Raj Makkar, MD, vice president of Cardiovascular Innovation and Intervention in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, is the national principal investigator for the trial.

The benefit of earlier treatment was shown by patients experiencing fewer heart-failure events, including hospitalizations, Makkar said.

“Patients with moderate aortic stenosis can already have symptoms and signs that their heart is under strain. These results show that for selected patients with at-risk features, treating the valve earlier can reduce the risk of heart-failure events before the narrowing becomes severe.”

The Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai enrolled more patients than any other participating center, giving patients a key role in advancing research into the disease.

“Our extensive experience with treating valvular heart disease, along with our ability to integrate research into routine patient care, powered our ability to enroll a significant number of patients,” said Makkar, the Karsh Distinguished Chair in Interventional Cardiology.

Aortic stenosis, which reduces blood flow from the heart to the body, affects more than 3% of adults 65 and older. Current guidelines recommend an echocardiogram every one to two years in patients with moderate disease, and valve replacement only when the stenosis becomes severe or another indication for surgery develops.

The PROGRESS trial enrolled 744 patients 65 or older at 74 centers in six countries. All had moderate aortic stenosis and at least one feature indicating increased risk, such as symptoms or abnormalities in heart structure or function. Investigators randomly assigned 373 patients to TAVR and 371 to clinical surveillance, with valve replacement available when indicated.

After two years, 23.9% of those assigned to surveillance had experienced heart failure or died, compared with 16.7% of patients assigned to TAVR. Patients who underwent TAVR were hospitalized for heart failure at half the rate of surveillance patients: 7.4% compared with 14.9% of those in the surveillance group.

“More than half of the patients initially assigned to surveillance underwent valve replacement within two years, suggesting that the disease can progress quickly from moderate to severe in some patients,” said Aakriti Gupta, MD, study co-author and an assistant professor in the Smidt Heart Institute.

The findings do not mean that every patient with moderate aortic stenosis should undergo TAVR. Researchers plan to follow participants for 10 years to determine whether the early reduction in heart-failure events translates into longer survival. They also will assess valve durability, the potential need for future procedures and which patients are most likely to benefit.

Because participants were an average of 78 years old, researchers also will examine whether the findings apply to younger patients or those without the at-risk features studied in PROGRESS.

“Helping patients avoid heart-failure episodes and the hospital stays that come with them is an important goal,” said Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute and the Mark Siegel Family Foundation Distinguished Chair. “As an institution that is well-positioned to treat the most complex heart valve cases, we are grateful to our patients, who were willing to participate in a clinical trial to help answer a question that could improve care for others.”

Additional authors include Philippe Généreux, MD, Raj Makkar, MD, Philippe Pibarot, DVM, PhD, Jeroen J. Bax, MD, Brian R. Lindman, MD, Kamran Muhammad, MD, J. Bradley Oldemeyer, MD, Mark Pirwitz, MD, Colin M. Barker, MD, Vinod H. Thourani, MD, Pradeep K. Yadav, MD, Roberto Rodriguez, MD, MSc, Justin Strote, MD, Rahul Sakhuja, MD, MPP, MSc, Ramzi Khalil, MD, Rahul Sharma, MD, Adnan Chhatriwalla, MD, Jacob M. Mishell, MD, Biswajit Kar, MD, Sameer Gafoor, MD, Joseph Walsh, MD, Daniel Spoon, MD, Andrew Frutkin, MD, Andrei Pop, MD, Nicolas M. Van Mieghem, MD, Ruby Satpathy, MD, Kenji Ando, MD, Joseph Montarello, MD, John Webb, MD, Sreekanth Vemulapalli, MD, David J. Cohen, MD, MSc, Brandon Park, PhD, Heather Prince, PhD, Philipp Blanke, MD, Michael Mack, MD, Martin B. Leon, MD on behalf of the PROGRESS Trial Investigators.

Disclosures: Raj Makkar – Consultant for and research grants from Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, Abbott, Jena Valve, Boston Scientific. Scientific Advisory board and equity for iCardio.ai, AllHeart, and PiCardia.

Funding: The PROGRESS trial was funded by Edwards Lifesciences (PROGRESS ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04889872).

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Emilie, Brodie and Maggie Mae Vehling have spinal muscular atrophy with progressive myoclonic epilepsy (SMA-PME), a condition that often goes unnoticed at first because symptoms typically do not appear until late childhood. Over time, however, the disease can cause muscle weakness, mobility challenges, cognitive decline, speech impairment, hearing loss and seizures.

Allen-Sharpley, a principal investigator at the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, explained to CBS 2 reporter Kara Finnstrom that the disease is caused by “a change in a single gene.”

She is leading a research team working to accelerate an innovative gene therapy that could modify the siblings’ stem cells so they produce a missing protein their bodies need. The approach could potentially stop—or even reverse—the progression of their disease.

A similar stem cell approach has proved successful in treating another rare genetic condition, Allen-Sharpley told Finnstrom. That success is giving the Vehling family hope that the research could help their children—and, ultimately, other patients.

The family has raised $2 million toward their $6 million goal to propel Allen-Sharpley’s research.  

The children’s mother, Mollie Vehling, expressed deep gratitude for the compassionate care and support her children are receiving from the Cedars-Sinai team.

“We call them just wicked smart, and we could never imagine finding anyone who would care more,” she said.

To support SMA-PME research at Cedars-Sinai, visit https://support.cedars-sinai.edu/TeamVehling.

Watch the complete segment from CBS 2.

Cedars-Sinai physician-scientists will join more than 8,000 conference attendees to present the latest research and best practices in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of liver disease. Topics include the relationship between ancestral origins and cirrhosis risk, newly identified biological mechanisms that worsen alcohol-related liver injury, potential treatments for metabolic liver disease, and new insights on limiting colorectal cancer growth in the liver.

“The Liver Meeting brings together experts from around the world to share discoveries that are advancing our understanding of liver disease and improving patient care,” said Shelly C. Lu, MD, the Women's Guild Chair in Gastroenterology and director of the Cedars-Sinai Karsh Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. “Cedars-Sinai experts are contributing research across the spectrum of liver health—from uncovering the biological mechanisms of disease to investigating new treatments and addressing disparities in care.”

Lu is available to discuss preclinical research identifying biological mechanisms that contribute to alcohol-associated liver disease, including an experimental compound that protected against alcohol-induced liver injury and inflammation in animal models. The studies could point toward new approaches to treating the disease.

Other Cedars-Sinai digestive and liver disease experts are available to discuss a wide variety of research, including:

Hyunseok Kim, MD, MPH, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine, will deliver a featured oral presentation on a large genetic study that found individuals with Admixed American ancestry—a genetic profile that includes Indigenous American and European ancestry common among Hispanic populations—had a substantially higher risk of alcohol-associated cirrhosis than those of European ancestry, even after accounting for alcohol consumption. Individuals with African ancestry had a lower risk. Kim can also discuss research associating naltrexone, a medication for alcohol use disorder, with a reduced risk of serious liver complications among heavy drinkers, including those without cirrhosis.

David E. Cohen, MD, PhD, chair of the Cedars-Sinai Department of Medicine, can discuss preclinical research showing how biological signals sent from muscles to the liver may help regulate fat accumulation, offering potential new insights into metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).

Walid Ayoub, MD, professor of Medicine and director of the Autoimmune and Cholestatic Liver Disease Program at Cedars-Sinai, can discuss clinical research evaluating the investigational drug volixibat for primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), including improvements in itching, fatigue and sleep disturbances. He also can discuss other advances in diagnosing and treating the disease.

Ju Dong Yang, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Liver Cancer Program, can discuss his oral presentation on the use of immunotherapy to shrink liver tumors before transplantation and when to stop treatment to reduce the risk of organ rejection. Yang also can discuss new health equity research examining how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated disparities in liver cancer treatment and survival among lower-income populations.

Ekihiro Seki, MD, PhD, a professor of Medicine, can share results of a preclinical investigation identifying a protein that may promote the spread of colorectal cancer to the liver in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Blocking the protein reduced tumor growth in animal models. Seki can also discuss a new study that identified a molecular pathway involved in liver cancer and fibrosis that may point to a target for developing new therapies.

Alexander Kuo, MD, professor of Medicine and medical director of Liver Transplantation, chairs the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases' Training and Workforce Committee. He can discuss the use of artificial intelligence in training liver specialists and the relative merits of liver-targeted medication versus GLP-1 therapy for treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).

Maria Lauda Tomasi, PhD, associate professor of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, can discuss preclinical research identifying a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism that worsens inflammation and contributes to liver injury in alcohol-associated liver disease. The findings could point to a potential target for new treatments.

Komal Ramani, PhD, associate professor of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, can discuss preclinical research identifying a protein that contributes to the progression of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Eliminating the protein in animal models reduced fat accumulation, inflammation and liver scarring, pointing to a new avenue of investigation for the development of therapies.

Media Contact

To schedule an interview with a Cedars-Sinai expert, contact Laura Coverson at laura.coverson@cshs.org or 310-562-1112.

At the Guerin Children’s Healing Garden, Rams players, including defensive end Myles Garrett, joined current and former patients for a Halloween party, playing games, handing out holiday treats and posing for photos. The team’s mascot, Rampage, also made an appearance, dressed in a turkey costume.

For children unable to leave their hospital rooms, the Rams players made bedside visits, signed hats and posed for photos, offering a welcome break from hospital routines.

“It’s an amazing time anytime you can put smiles on children’s faces, especially when they’re going through things,” Garrett said. “You just get an opportunity to be a light in someone’s life for just a moment.”

Meanwhile, in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Guerin Children’s, parents selected handmade costumes for their babies’ first Halloween. The custom-made outfits, which are inspired by children’s storybook characters, have become an annual tradition, giving parents a keepsake to remember their little ones’ first Halloween.

Sewn by volunteers, the costumes feature easy-to-use Velcro to accommodate the babies’ medical wires and tubes. Parents chose adorable designs, including a pumpkin, watermelon, Minnie Mouse, a tiger and a ladybug, complete with a matching hat.

For 9-week-old Siya, mom Shivani Malavia chose a Minnie Mouse costume to match her own.

“Siya is my ‘mini-me,’ and she looks just like her older sister, who was also Minnie Mouse for her first Halloween,” Malavia said.

Parents Jordan Bach and Elizabeth Tod were excited to pick out a pumpkin costume for their son Lachlan.

“This is really exciting,” Tod said. “I was worried about not having a normal Halloween experience, but this made it feel real.”

Hospital staff also joined the festivities and dressed up to match the event’s ’80s theme.  

“Parents don’t have the opportunity to celebrate Halloween when they’re in the NICU. So, having the volunteers make costumes and being able to dress their babies up and the staff dressing up really brings some normalcy to their NICU stay and makes parents happy,” said Bevin Merideth, MSN, associate director of the NICU at Guerin Children’s. 

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights—Crib Safety: Preventing Falls and Injuries

Maya, a professor of Imaging, has served as co-chair of the department since 2011 and will now lead its clinical, research and education programs. He was director of the Radiology Residency Program from 2003-11.

“Dr. Maya will drive innovation and continuous improvement of our imaging services across Cedars-Sinai,” said Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH, executive vice president, chief physician executive and dean of the Medical Faculty.

Among Maya’s primary goals as chair will be to deliver safe and timely access to high-quality imaging while supporting growing clinical needs as the demand for Cedars-Sinai services increases. He also will aim to strengthen organizational partnerships, including joint ventures, to deliver leading-edge services.

Maya currently practices as a neuroradiologist and neuro-interventionalist, integrated into Cedars-Sinai’s stroke, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, spine and multiple sclerosis programs. While he will devote most of his time to his new responsibilities as chair, he will continue to provide clinical support for these programs.

In clinical practice, Maya uses advanced imaging to diagnose conditions affecting the brain and spine, and minimally invasive and image-guided techniques to diagnose and treat strokes, CSF leaks and other conditions.

Maya has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications. His scholarly and clinical contributions are most notable in CSF leak and spontaneous intracranial hypotension, a neurological disorder caused by loss of cerebrospinal fluid volume and reduced cushioning of the brain.

“Dr. Maya’s clinical leadership and commitment to quality care, physician education and interdisciplinary research will strengthen the care we provide to our patients,” said Bryan Croft, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Maya earned his medical degree from Istanbul University in Istanbul, Turkey. After completing pathology residency training at Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty Hospital, he completed a radiology residency and served as chief resident at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. He completed a neuroradiology fellowship at New York University Medical Center, followed by a visiting fellowship in pediatric neuroradiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“I am honored to lead the Department of Imaging and to continue working alongside our outstanding physicians, technologists, nurses, staff and trainees,” Maya said. “Together, we will build on the department’s strengths in patient care, education and research, while advancing innovation and improving access to imaging for the patients and communities we serve.”

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Cedars-Sinai in the News

What To Know About the Five Phases of Women’s and Girls’ Heart Health | NBC News Online
C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD 

Low Education Raises Dementia Risk, But You Can Keep Building Brain Resilience | AARP
Zaldy Tan, MD, MPH 

On-Duty Firefighter Deaths Are Increasingly Cardiac in Nature | TCTMD
Alan Kwan, MD 

How Pancreatic Cancer Pain Can Be Managed | Everyday Health
Arpit Arora, MD, and Arsen Osipov, MD

Autonomous Robotic Surgery: The Future of Standardized Procedures | HealthLeaders
Andrew Hung, MD, and Michael Yip, PhD 

Alert Fatigue, Chatbots: The Real-World Test for AI Medical Technology | Association of Health Care Journalists
Melissa Wong, MD, MHDS 

A Hidden Signal in Common Heart Tests Could Help Predict Sudden Death | Yahoo! News
Sumeet Chugh, MD, and Kyndaron Reinier, PhD, MPH 

The Patient Safety Events Hospitals Aren’t Seeing | Becker's Clinical Leadership
Tara Cohen, PhD 

Can AI Humanize Medicine? Doctors Pitch ‘Blended Intelligence’ | Association of Health Care Journalists
Omer Liran, MD

Faculty Publications

Biomedical Sciences

Bioengineering Technologies for Enabling Biomedical Research in Space. Gupta, Jasmine, Maedeh Mozneb, Jemima Moses, and Arun Sharma. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 14: 1915463.

Prediction of All-Cause Mortality, Cardiovascular Mortality, and Angiographic Coronary Disease From LVEF Reserve: Findings From the Multicenter REFINE PET Registry. Hijazi, Waseem, Jianhang Zhou, Robert J. H. Miller, Giselle Ramirez, Mark Lemley, Aakash Shanbhag, Jacek Kwiecinski, Paul B. Kavanagh, Tejas Parekh, Joanna X. Liang, Erick Alexanderson, Isabel Carvajal-Juarez, Leandro Slipczuk, Mark Travin, Stacey Knight, Viet T. Le, Steve Mason, Rene R. S. Packard, Mouaz Al-Mallah, Wanda Acampa, Robert A. deKemp, Attila Feher, Thomas Rosamond, Samuel Wopperer, Ronny R. Buechel, Panithaya Chareonthaitawee, Andrew J. Einstein, Sharmila Dorbala, Daniel Berman, Damini Dey, Marcelo Di Carli, and Piotr Slomka. Circulation. Cardiovascular Imaging, October, e020062.

The EMPROR’s New Groove. Nance, Karina J., and Helen S. Goodridge. Nature Immunology 27 (11): 2190–92.

Serum Proteomic Profiling by SomaScan Aptamer Array Identifies Candidate Predictive and Monitoring Biomarkers of Distant Recurrence in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. Kim, Jina, Sunao Tanaka, Edwardia Fosah, Cynthia Jinno, Hyoyoung Kim, Thanosan Prathifkumar, Yukiko Fukui, Kana Kawanishi, Masahiro Kawashima, Norikazu Masuda, Joshua Levy, Takeo Fujii, Sungyong You, and Hideki Furuya. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 27 (20): 9070.

Cardiac Surgery

One Year Survival of High-Risk Patients Undergoing Coronary Revascularization. Caldeira, Christiano C. B., Dale K. Mueller, Todd M. Dewey, Charles T. Klodell, V. Seenu S. Reddy, Michael E. Bowdish, J. Hunter Mehaffey, Moritz W. Von Ballmoos, Asvin Ganapathi, Steven V. Manoukian, and Gregory P. Fontana. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, October, S0003-4975(26)01053-2

Safety and Outcomes of Transvenous Lead Extraction of Advisory ePTFE-Coated Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Leads: A Multicenter Experience With RELIANCE G. Gad, Mohamed, Balaram Krishna Hanumanthu, Yong-Mei Cha, Zhiyong Qian, Fred M. Kusumoto, Danesh Kella, Ufuk Vardar, Rohit Mehta, Satish K. Misra, Neel Patel, Elijah H. Beaty, Tricia L. Coons, Francis Hartge, Ulrika M. Birgersdotter-Green, Aron Bender, Kristen K. Patton, Elliott Goldberg, Pamela K. Mason, Bo Wang, Mikhael F. El-Chami, Malcolm Woollett, Erich L. Kiehl, Paul Han, Jay A. Montgomery, Alexandre Raymond-Paquin, Blandine A. Mondesert, Raymond H. M. Schaerf, Jayanthi N. Koneru, Francis E. Marchlinski, Steven P. Kutalek, Moussa Saleh, Laurence M. Epstein, and Robert D. Schaller. JACC. Clinical Electrophysiology, October, S2405-500X(26)00862-5.

Saving the Capillaries: FGFR1/KLB and MFG-E8 in Diabetic Hearts. Elbatreek, Mahmoud H., and David J. Lefer. Circulation Research 139 (10): e329682.

Cardiology

Coronary Vascular Dysfunction Is Associated With Adverse Left Ventricular Filling in Patients With Angina But No Obstructed Coronary Arteries. Oneglia, Andrew P., Janet Wei, Bruce Samuels, T. Jake Samuel, Behzad Sharif, Babak Azarbal, John W. Petersen, Yujie Cui, Tatsunori Takahashi, Eileen Handberg, Carl J. Pepine, C. Noel Bairey Merz, and Michael D. Nelson. International Journal of Cardiology, October, 135031.

Enhanced Structural Reverse Remodeling Following LVAD Support in Patients With TTN Truncating Variants. Richards, Donald, Robert M. Cole, Michelle Kittleson, Daniel Mitchell, Vahid Yazdi, Meshe Chonde, Laura DiChiacchio, Lawrence Czer, Jaime Moriguchi, Jon Kobashigawa, and Evan P. Kransdorf. JHLT Open 14 (November): 100688.

Evaluating Associations of Oxylipin Metabolites and Fatty Acids With Incident and Prevalent Type 2 Diabetes in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). Downie, Carolina G., Heather M. Highland, Annie Green Howard, Mona Alotaibi, Tali Elfassy, Christina Cordero, Jennifer E. Below, Mercedes Carnethon, Susan Cheng, Martha Daviglus, Olga Garcia-Bedoya, Robert Kaplan, Tasneem Khambaty, Yilun Li, Adam G. Lilly, Dan-Yu Lin, Tao Long, Frank J. Penedo, Lauren E. Petty, Bharat Thyagarajan, Hsiao-Chuan Tien, Mohit Jain, Barrett M. Welch, Kari E. North, and Christy L. Avery. PloS One 21 (10): e0360656.

Inter-American Consensus on Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Parodi, Josefina B., Cristhian E. Scatularo, Enrique A. Berríos-Bárcenas, Juan D. López-Ponce de León, Diego Pérez de Arenaza, Luis E. Gómez, Juan P. Costabel, Fabio Fernandes, Clara Saldarriaga, Víctor Rossel, Carlos E. Rochitte, Ricardo Stein, Adrián Baranchuk, et al. Archivos De Cardiologia De Mexico 96 (Supl 4): 1–60.

PASCAL Precision System Outcomes by Implant Location and Lesion Location in Degenerative Mitral Regurgitation Patients From the STS/ACC TVT Registry. Ramanathan, P. Kasi, Raj Makkar, Thomas Waggoner, Azeem Latib, Robert M. Kipperman, Ivan Hanson, Anjan K. Sinha, Tarun Chakravarty, Rahul P. Sharma, Jeremiah P. Depta, Jorge A. Castellanos, Susheel Kodali, Amar Krishnaswamy, Brian Whisenant, Daniel Menees, D. Scott Lim, Fahad Gilani, Carlos E. Sanchez, Neil Gheewala, Santiago Garcia, Hemal Gada, Samir Kapadia, Pinak B. Shah, Brian Renard, Gus Theodos, Ricardo Yaryura, Blake Gardner, Daniel H. Steinberg, Eric Gnall, Georges Kaddissi, Adnan K. Chhatriwalla, Antonio H. Frangieh, Mackram F. Eleid, Philippe Géneréux, John T. Saxon, Pedro Villablanca, Fadi Matar, Himanshu Agarwal, Stanley Chetcuti, Tiberio Frisoli, and Firas Zahr. Journal of the American Heart Association, October, e052158.

Pharmacist Management of Oral Anticoagulation for Atrial Fibrillation in the Community: The APOTHECARY AF Study. Blyler, Ciantel Adair, Elizabeth M. Jones, Brian S. Mittman, Steven W. Chen, Christine M. Albert, Roopinder K. Sandhu, and APOTHECARY AF Collaborators. Heart Rhythm O2 7 (10): 1923–32.

Shared Decision-Making for Asymptomatic Wolff-Parkinson-White Pattern in Young Athletes: Success Lies in Pre-Game Preparation. Phan, Francis, Timothy W. Churchill, Eli M. Friedman, Jonathan A. Drezner, Aaron L. Baggish, John-Henry L. Dean, Samantha L. Weller, Eugene H. Chung, Rachel Lampert, and Bradley J. Petek. JACC. Advances 5 (11 Pt 2): 103375.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Athletes With Cardiomyopathies: Focusing on the Fundamentals. Friedman, Eli M., and Matthew W. Martinez. JACC. Advances 5 (10 Pt 1): 103249.

Temporal Trends and Autopsy Correlates of Duty-Related Cardiac Death in Firefighters. Joung, Sandy Y., Brian Claggett, Lori Martinez-Rubio, Michelle Bravo, Rahul Gupta, Yeran Lee, Eli M. Friedman, Evan Kransdorf, Joseph E. Ebinger, Stefanos Kales, Susan Cheng, and Alan C. Kwan. JACC. Advances, October, 103383.

The ATTR-CM Treatment Gap: National Trends and Disparities in Transthyretin-Directed Therapy. Menda, Jaideep, Lily K. Stern, Deya A. Alkhatib, Cesia Gallegos, Attila Feher, and Jiun-Ruey Hu. Journal of Cardiac Failure, October, S1071-9164(26)00630-5.

The Role of Inflammation on Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction and Potential Therapeutic Targets. Wang, Wanqi, Martina Magistri, John Beltrame, Noel Bairey Merz, Roxana Mehran, and Vijay Kunadian. European Heart Journal Open 6 (5): oeag153.

Imaging

Advanced Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Young Individuals and Risk of Mortality Over 30 Years: The Coronary Artery Calcium Consortium. Choi, Sungwoo, Omar Dzaye, Zeina Dardari, Zhiqi Yao, Tianyu Cao, Semenawit Burka, John Erhabor, Yara Jelwan, Marie Diener-West, Matthew Budoff, Daniel S. Berman, Khurram Nasir, Leslee J. Shaw, Michael D. Miedema, John Rumberger, Mahmoud Al Rifai, Marcio S. Bittencourt, Seamus P. Whelton, Roger S. Blumenthal, and Michael J. Blaha. JAMA Cardiology, October, e264819.

Medicine

Advances in HLA Desensitization for Kidney Transplant Candidates. Chandran, Sindhu, Edmund Huang, Ashley Vo, and Stanley Jordan. Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension, October.

Aerobic Exercise Training Alters Gastrointestinal Microbiota and Enhances Exercise Capacity in UM-HET3 Mice. Smith, Casandra, Kiara Garza, Hushyar Azari, Heather Vellers, Mostafa Abdelrahman, Chathurika S. Dhanasekara, Adam B. Salmon, Hanyu Liang, Elizabeth Fernandez, Nicolas Musi, Michael P. Massett, and Kembra Albracht-Schulte. GeroScience, October.

Barriers and Opportunities in Therapeutic Development for Early-Onset Preeclampsia. Massaro, An, Ananth Karumanchi, Christina Chang, Corinne S. de Vries, Holger Stepan, Joey Granger, Jon Hyett, Kwame Adu-Bonsaffoh, Manu Vatish, Priya Soma-Pillay, Robyn Langham Am, Sailesh Kumar, Sarosh Rana, Stephen Rulisa, and Swati Bhat. Hypertension, October.

Bone Health in Oncology: Defining Biosimilar Denosumab Use Through Multidisciplinary Collaboration. Aapro, Matti, Robert Coleman, Niharika Dixit, Joel B. Epstein, Peyman Hadji, and Daniele Santini. Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology, October, 105660.

Cellular Senescence Dysregulates Antiviral Interferon Responses in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Hughes, Jun-Wei B., Yasmina Reisser, Franziska Hornung, Tyler A. U. Hilsabeck, Fiona Senchyna, Ana L. Coelho, Tsung-Che Ho, Kevin Schneider, David Furman, Cory M. Hogaboam, Claude Jourdan Le Saux, Pierre-Yves Desprez, and Stefanie Deinhardt-Emmer. Aging Cell 25 (11): e70763.

Conversational Artificial Intelligence for Geriatric Screening: A Mixed-Methods Feasibility Study. Naeim, Arash, Justin Cheng, Brennan Spiegel, Alexandra Bakshian, Ella Tetrault, Muskaan Mehra, Dian Amini, Zoe Krut, Helen Shang, Mina S. Sedrak, Alex Bui, Taylor Johnson, Raymond Wang, Antonia Petruse, Jiang Yiqun, and Omer Liran. Journal of Geriatric Oncology 18 (2): 104662.

Evaluation of Myocardial Blood Flow Using 18F-Flurpiridaz PET: Established Applications With Pharmacologic Stress and Roadmap for Exercise Stress Implementation. Ali, Farzana Z., Piotr J. Slomka, and René R. Sevag Packard. Current Cardiology Reports 28 (1): 115.

Final Prespecified Analysis of the Phase 3 LITESPARK-011 Study: Belzutifan plus Lenvatinib Versus Cabozantinib for Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma After Anti-PD-(L)1 Therapy. Heng, D. Y. C., M. Schmidinger, R. McDermott, S. H. Park, M. Burotto, C. Ciccarese, E. Verzoni, C. Suárez, M. Eto, H. J. Cutuli, C. Porta, R. M. Kopp, S. Rottey, G. de Velasco, B. P. Valderrama, A. A. Azad, U. De Giorgi, M. Pavic, P. Tomczak, R. Figlin, H. M. Westgeest, A. Guida, A. Necchi, F. A. Schutz, B. B. M. Suelmann, J. Bag Haanen, J. Lin, R. F. Perini, D. Vickery, R. J. Motzer, and LITESPARK-011 Investigators. Annals of Oncology, October, S0923-7534(26)06893-6.

Lymph Node-Targeted, mKRAS-Specific Amphiphile Vaccine in Pancreatic Cancer: The Randomized Phase 2 AMPLIFY-7P Trial. George, Ben, Harshabad Singh, Craig E. Devoe, Vincent Chung, Peter J. Hosein, Andrew Hendifar, Dae Won Kim, Jennifer B. Valerin, Tanios Bekaii-Saab, Dana B. Cardin, Manuel Hidalgo, Pashtoon M. Kasi, Alexis D. Leal, Meredith Pelster, Naomi Fei, Colin D. Weekes, Mark H. O’Hara, Thomas J. George, Syed M. Kazmi, Jonathan D. Mizrahi, Suresh Nair, Martin Maiers, Thian Kheoh, Gianni Amato, Jino Xavier, Julia P. Snyder, Madison H. Milaszewski, Xavier Cabana-Puig, James R. Perry, Lisa K. McNeil, Esther Welkowsky, Peter C. DeMuth, Christopher M. Haqq, Shubham Pant, Zev A. Wainberg, and Eileen M. O’Reilly. Nature Medicine, October.

Psychometric Validation of PROMIS Measures in Acute and Chronic Pancreatitis. Askew, Robert L., Soo Kyung Park, Melena Bellin, William E. Fisher, Evan L. Fogel, Christopher E. Forsmark, Phil A. Hart, Liang Li, Tonya M. Palermo, Stephen J. Pandol, Walter G. Park, Mark D. Topazian, Stephen K. Van Den Eeden, Santhi Swaroop Vege, Darwin L. Conwell, Dhiraj Yadav, and Consortium for the Study of Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes, Pancreatic Cancer (CPDPC). Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology, October.

RAS-Pathway Mutation Profiles and Clinical Outcomes Among Patients With Colorectal Cancer. Kazemian, Elham, Louisa Liu, Barliz Waissengrin, Marco Matejcic, Daniel Sobieski, Ya-Yu Tsai, Nicole C. Loroña, Nathalie T. Nguyen, José A. Oliveras Torres, W. Douglas Cress, Edna R. Gordián, Erin M. Siegel, Jamie K. Teer, Stephanie L. Schmit, and Jane C. Figueiredo. Cancer Medicine 15 (10): e72411.

Real-World Analysis of Thromboprophylaxis Use During Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Multiple Myeloma. Lee, Hannah, Ronald L. Paquette, Haein Kim, Brittany McGalliard, Eyman Sonbol, David R. Oveisi, Noah M. Merin, Joshua Sasine, Akil Merchant, Justin Darrah, Fatima Khan, Christopher Lopiccolo, John P. Chute, Oksana Volod, and Robert Vescio. Haematologica, October.

Social and Clinical Determinants of Liver Transplant Evaluation in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Multicenter Cohort Study. Tincopa, Monica, Lana Bridi, Irine Vodkin, Mignote Yilma, Kali Zhou, Allison Kwong, Jasleen Singh, Neil Mehta, Alexander Kuo, Ryutaro Hirose, Steven A. Wisel, Justin A. Steggerda, Chris Freise, and Veeral Ajmera. Hepatology Communications 10 (11): e1068.

Treatment-Stratified Immune-Inflammatory Trajectories and Early Response in Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma Receiving Systemic Therapy. Kim, Ashley, Manaf Alsudaney, Osama Khattab, Daniel Legaspi, Naomy Kim, Shahzeb Imran, Angelica E. Alderete, Pin-Jung Chen, Fadhil Jamil, Jason Liu, Jihye Lim, Ekaterina Koltsova, Walid Ayoub, Andrew Hendifar, and Ju Dong Yang. Diagnostics 16 (20): 3329.

Neurosurgery

Factors Associated With Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt Placement Following Posterior Fossa Tumor Resection in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Al-Mufargi, Younis, Asma AlHosni, Ayat Al Zadjali, Manar Al-Farsi, Al-Zahraa Al-Arafati, Said Al-Mayahi, Mohammed Al Subhi, and Tariq Al-Saadi. Medicina 62 (10): 1953.

H3K9me3 Inhibition Reverses Alzheimer’s Progression by Restoring Synaptic and Immune Proteostasis Across the Brain-Retina Axis. Fuchs, Dieu-Trang, Jean-Philippe Vit, Altan Rentsendorj, Yosef Koronyo, Julia Sheyn, Bhakta Prasad Gaire, Saba Shahin, Haoshen Shi, Oksana Chepurna, Miyah R. Davis, Jered W. Wilson, Stuart L. Graham, Vivek K. Gupta, Lon S. Schneider, Michael T. Kleinman, Tao Sun, Margaret Fahnestock, David A. Horne, Mehdi Mirzaei, Keith L. Black, and Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association 22 (10): e71918.

Optimizing Inferior Petrosal Sinus Sampling: Results of a Multicenter Study. Rawson, Clayton, Samuel A. Tenhoeve, Julie M. Silverstein, Albert H. Kim, James J. Evans, Sarah Collopy, Robert Rennert, William T. Couldwell, Garni Barkhoudarian, Dan Kelly, Juan C. Fernandez-Miranda, Donato R. Pacione, Won Kim, Marvin Bergsneider, Michael R. Chicoine, Gabriel Zada, Varun R. Kshettry, Daniel M. Prevedello, Kyle C. Wu, Carolina Benjamin, Jamie J. Van Gompel, Michael P. Catalino, Adam Mamelak, Nathan Zwagerman, Andre Furlan, Andrew S. Little, Kevin Cj Yuen, Paul Gardner, Michael Karsy, and RAPID Consortium. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 155 (October): 112367.

Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters Are Independently Associated With Disability at Presentation in Adult Spinal Deformity Patients. Sastry, Rahul A., Alexa Semonche, Conor Grady, Adrian Fu, Tej D. Azad, Justin K. Scheer, Aaron J. Clark, Vedat Deviren, and Christopher P. Ames. Journal of Neurosurgery. Spine, October, 1–8.

Stimulus-Specific Recruitment of Human Amygdala Neurons Predicts Episodic Memory Encoding Success. Xiao, Jiayang, Jonathan Daume, Yousef Salimpour, Natalia Kurilenko, Clayton Mosher, William S. Anderson, Taufik A. Valiante, Adam N. Mamelak, and Ueli Rutishauser. Nature Neuroscience, October.

The Distinctive Body Habitus of Frontotemporal Dementia Sagging Brain Syndrome. Schievink, Wouter I., Marcel M. Maya, Kim T. Giang, Rachelle B. Taché, and Miriam A. Nuño. AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology, October, ajnr.A9693.

TIM-3 Functions as an Activator of NK Cells in GBM and Can Be Upregulated by Torin-1: Implications for Exogenous NK Cell Transplantation. Liu, Yuning, Tram Dao, Shambhavi Borde, Diana Dinh, Sofia Lombardi, Sandra Torregrosa-Allen, Haley A. Harper, Veronika Slivova, Aaron Cohen-Gadol, MacKenzie McIntosh, Bennet D. Elzey, and Sandro Matosevic. Immunology, October.

OBGYN

Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Early Prediction of Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Vascular and Inflammatory Markers. Spiro, Leah, Eynav E. Accortt, Sarah Kilpatrick, Judith E. Carroll, Galen Cook Wiens, C. Noel Bairey Merz, and Margo B. Minissian. Journal of Women’s Health, October, 15409996261503716.

Association Between Clinically Suspected Endometriosis Lacking Histologic Evidence and Anxiety, Depression and Cannabidiol-Containing Products. Meyer, Raanan, Jennifer Sun, Christina Lombardi, Maya Shats, Pak Hin Yu, Forough Abbasi, Ashley Berberian, Anthony Manlinguez, Shruti Kulkarni, Margareta Pisarska, Fabiola Medeiros, Marc T. Goodman, Kate Lawrenson, Matthew Siedhoff, and Kelly N. Wright. European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology: X 32 (December): 100500.

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Canadian Spine Society: 26th Annual Scientific Conference, March 2-6, 2026, Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alta., Canada. Thombre, Bhushan Diwakar, Jennifer Urquhart, Chris Bailey, Andrew Glennie, Charles Fisher, Raja Rampersaud, Chloe Cadieux, Ruheksh Raj, Farbod Moghaddam, May Choi, Fred Nicholls, Aazad Abbas, Stephen Lewis, et al. Canadian Journal of Surgery. Journal Canadien De Chirurgie 69 (5suppl1): S20–96.

Large Language Models Match and Occasionally Surpass the SRS AIS Handbook in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Education. Kodali, Prudhvi, Maveric Abella, David L. Skaggs, Sang Do Kim, Kenneth D. Illingworth, and Christopher Mikhail. Spine Deformity, October.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Assessing Suicide Risk Reduction in the Interval Before Death by Suicide Using Natural Language Processing. Levis, Maxwell, Monica Dimambro, Joshua Levy, Bradley Watts, and Brian Shiner. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 87 (4): 25m16249.

Optimizing an Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid Decalcification Protocol for Diagnostic Bone Biopsies: Experience at an Academic Medical Center. Ha, Jason, Laura J. Vidis, Evan Goyette, Shannon N. Schutz, Michael L. Baker, Joshua J. Levy, Konstantinos Linos, and Darcy A. Kerr. Journal of Histotechnology, October, 1–9.

Pediatrics

A Suite of Ameloblast Cre and Fluorescent Alleles for Studying Amelogenesis. Wald, T., A. Verma, V. Cooley, P. Marangoni, D. Sung, H. Najibi, N. P. Shroff, E. J. Sandoval, O. Cazares, A. Sharir, K. Alvares, T. Y. Drennon, J. O. Bush, D. Joester, and O. D. Klein. Journal of Dental Research, October, 220345261489581.

Defining Surgical Margins in Nonrhabdomyosarcoma Soft Tissue Sarcoma. Kim, Eugene S., and Roshni Dasgupta. JAMA Surgery, October.

Functional Stratification of YWHAZ Variants Explains Distinct Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Popov, Ivan K., Marialetizia Motta, Ingrid Guarnetti Prandi, Jiahui Tao, Manuela Priolo, Marco Ferilli, Rami Abou Jamra, Elsa V. Balton, Guillaume Banneau, Alessandro Bruselles, Krista Bukele, Cristel Chapel-Crespo, Giovanni Chillemi, Andrea Ciolfi, Viviana Cordeddu, Amy Crunk, Paola Daniele, Alessandro De Luca, Martine Doco-Fenzy, Ellen R. Elias, Elisabetta Flex, Balram Gangaram, Kathryn Gasperian, Katheryn Grand, Deborah Holder, Sophie Julia, Eric Klee, Boris Keren, Chiara Leoni, Kathleen A. Leppig, Cecilia Mancini, Monica Marica, Ieva Micule, Roberta Onesimo, Tilman Polster, Francesca Clementina Radio, Omar A. Abdul-Rahman, Anita Rauch, Lisa A. Schimmenti, Samantha A. Schrier Vergano, Christina Szialta, Jeffrey Tenney, Martina Terrusa, Kathryn Nicole Weaver, Nancy William, Grace Yoon, Giuseppe Zampino, Chenbei Chang, and Marco Tartaglia. American Journal of Human Genetics, October, S0002-9297(26)00384-8.

Impact of ERCP on Pancreatitis Frequency in Pediatric Acute Recurrent or Chronic Pancreatitis: An INSPPIRE-2 Study. Joseph, Michael, Jacob A. Mark, Robert Adam Noe, Fuchenchu Wang, Gretchen A. Cress, Maisam Abu-El-Haija, Ankur Chugh, Reuven Zev Cohen, Elissa M. Downs, Douglas S. Fishman, A. Jay Freeman, Matthew J. Giefer, Tanja Gonska, Amit S. GrOver, Andrew Y. J. Liman, Douglas Lindblad, Quin Y. Liu, Asim Maqbool, Brian A. McFerron, Megha S. Mehta, Veronique D. Morinville, Kenneth Ng, Chee Y. Ooi, Emily R. Perito, Feng Tian, Michael Wilschanski, Yuhua Zheng, Ying Yuan, Mark E. Lowe, Aliye Uc, and Consortium for the Study of Chronic Pancreatitis; Diabetes and Pancreatic Cancer. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, October.

p75NTR Orchestrates Chondrogenesis and Mechanoadaptation to Preserve Temporomandibular Joint Development and Homeostasis. Kadota-Watanabe, Chiho, Jinsook Suh, Eric Yin, Byron Zhao, Jey Kim, Yan Zhang, In-Won Chang, Sowmya Ramesh, Yuna Lee, Joshua Chen, Maulik Ahuja, Sara Jahangiri, Isabelle Lao-Ngo, Ursula Eisinger, Kate Lindsey, Haihui Zhang, Fatemeh Momen-Heravi, Juan Du, James M. Gardner, Rebeka Silva, Sumit Yadav, Chelsea S. Bahney, Aaron W. James, Reuben H. Kim, Ophir D. Klein, and Christine Hong. Science Advances 12 (43): eaef7786.

Radiation Oncology

Comments on Cardiac Risk After Heart-Sparing Breast Radiotherapy Study-Reply. Quirk, Sarah, Katelyn M. Atkins, and Michael Roumeliotis. JAMA Oncology, October.

Hypofractionated Radiation Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer: An ASTRO Clinical Practice Guideline. Morgan, Scott C., Aditya Halthore, Angela Y. Jia, Amar U. Kishan, Andrew Loblaw, Xinglei Shen, Alison Tree, John DeMarco, Robert T. Dess, Gary Eastwick, Rodney Ellis, Adam S. Feldman, Wm Kevin Kelly, Eric Morrow, Piet Ost, Edina C. Wang, Samuel L. Washington, Emily S. Weg, Lisa Bradfield, and Karen Hoffman. Practical Radiation Oncology, October, S1879-8500(26)00326-7.

Surgery

Beyond Hoarseness: Primary Low-Grade B-Cell Lymphoproliferative Disorder of the Supraglottis. Alvarado, Steven, and Anna P. Hsu. Ear, Nose, & Throat Journal, October, 1455613261499466.

From Patients to Surgeons: Sleep Monitoring Across the Surgical Continuum. Bolster, Drew, and Mara B. Antonoff. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, October, S0022-5223(26)01364-4.

Long-Term Outcomes and Biomarker Correlates of a Multi-Institutional Phase II Study of Hypofractionated Proton Beam Therapy for Unresectable Primary Liver Tumors. Roberts, Hannah J., Theodore S. Hong, Zoe Guan, Beow Y. Yeap, Edgar Ben-Josef, Andrew X. Zhu, Lipika Goyal, Joseph W. Franses, David P. Ryan, Jill N. Allen, Jeffrey W. Clark, Leilana Ly, Lorraine C. Drapek, Kenneth Tanabe, Cristina R. Ferrone, Eugene J. Koay, Christopher H. Crane, Thomas F. DeLaney, Dan G. Duda, and Jennifer Y. Wo. Clinical Cancer Research, October.

Low-Affinity Anti-HER2-CAR T Cells Efficiently Eradicate HER2+ and HER2low Cancer Cells With Reduced Toxicity on Healthy Tissue. Knoedler, Leonard, Konstantin Herfeld, Julian N. Scherer, Kaiji Fan, Dhyani Shah, Sascha Goettert, Luisa Becker, Iria Lloshi, Suqi Li, Dennis C. Harrer, Matthias A. Fante, Tobias Wertheimer, Roland Schelker, Severin Guetter, Misbah Tariq, Omer Khalid, Alexander Scheiter, Wolfgang Herr, Christian Schmidl, Moritz Jesinghaus, Markus Tschurtschenthaler, Hendrik Poeck, and Markus Perl. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 14: 1895507.

Plasma Amino Acid Profiles Reveal Metabolic Signatures of Mortality and Infection in Critically Ill Surgical Patients Requiring Parenteral Nutrition: A Longitudinal Analysis. Gonzalez Ramirez, Lucia A., Dean P. Jones, Kirk A. Easley, Donghai Liang, George A. Cotsonis, John R. Galloway, Mengyuan Ren, Daniel P. Griffith, Nisha J. Dave, Kenneth A. Kudsk, Harry C. Sax, Addison K. May, Paul E. Wischmeyer, Henry M. Blumberg, Jessica A. Alvarez, and Thomas R. Ziegler. Clinical Nutrition 67 (October): 106819.

Publisher Correction: Comparative Clinical Effectiveness and Operating Efficiency of Different Ultrasonic Devices for Performance of Sleeve Gastrectomy. Misra, Monali, I.-Wen Pan, Zasim Azhar Siddiqui, Frank Bisceglie, and Matthew Kroh. Obesity Surgery, October.

REPLY. Wu, George L., Nir Horesh, Moshe Barnajian, and Yosef Nasseri. Diseases of the Colon and Rectum, October.

Reply to: ‘Comment on AI-Based Quantitative and Objective Analysis of Aesthetic Results in Genioplasty.’ Munzinger, Robert J., Samuel Knoedler, Tobias Niederegger, Simon Bigus, Rainer Pooth, Henri Kreiker, Alexandre G. Lellouch, Jan O. Voss, and Leonard Knoedler. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, October.

Thromboembolic and Hemorrhagic Risks After Mastectomy With vs Without Direct-to-Implant Reconstruction. Mokhtar, Jonathan, John Y. Ha, Jewel Haddad, Curtis L. Cetrulo, David M. Smadja, and Alexandre G. Lellouch. Blood Vessels, Thrombosis & Hemostasis 3 (4): 100208.

Transoral-Transtemporal Endotine-Assisted Endoscopic Midface Lift (TTEEM): Technical Considerations and Objective Long-Term Outcomes. Levin, Marc, Jordan Kai Simmons, and Andrew Frankel. Facial Plastic Surgery: FPS, October.

Urology

Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Prevention of Prostate Cancer. Gandaglia, Giorgio, Adam B. Weiner, Alberto Briganti, Rosalind A. Eeles, Scott Eggener, Martin Gleave, Markus Graefen, Carlo La Vecchia, Silvia Mignozzi, Pär Stattin, Vanessa Hayes, Hendrik van Poppel, and Peter Albers. European Urology, October, S0302-2838(26)02435-8.

Intraductal and Cribriform Carcinoma of the Prostate: A Clinical Companion to the GUPS/ISUP Consensus Guidelines. Weiner, Adam B., Rajal B. Shah, Gladell P. Paner, Behfar Ehdaie, and Scott E. Eggener. The Journal of Urology, October, 101097JU0000000000005360.

Large Oncosomes Induce Pro-Metastatic Stromal-Myeloid Reprogramming. Silva, Taylon Felipe, Virginia Marcia Concato-Lopes, Fatima Bedier, Lauren Newman, Diana Kitka, Jamelle Brown, Blandine Victor, Minhyung Kim, Tatyana Vagner, Catherine Grasso, Dmitriy Sheyn, Sungyong You, Michael R. Freeman, Fayyaz S. Sutterwala, Helen S. Goodridge, Caroline Jefferies, Paola de Candia, Jlenia Guarnerio, and Dolores Di Vizio. Advanced Science, October, e78406.

Patient Sociodemographic Factors Impact the Breast Cancer Microenvironment. DeWitt, Jerry T., Daisy Jimenez-Tovar, Elena Oropeza, Esra Tiftik Karabay, Casandra Nguyen, Astha Lamichhane, Megha Raghunathan, Blake Gabel, Badri Narayanan Narasimhan, Fenna Candy, Lindsey Kuwahara, Audrey G. Head, Sergey Batalov, Erin L. Kirk, Somaye Zare, Matthew N. Bainbridge, Stephanie I. Fraley, Asona Lui, Shreya A. Raghavan, Parag Katira, Carlos Luna Lopez, Melissa A. Troester, Stephen J. Freedland, and Svasti Haricharan. Cancer Research, October.

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Whole-genome sequencing is an analysis of the roughly 20,000 genes in a person’s DNA. The test, usually performed using a blood or saliva sample, is used to identify genetic variations that may be linked to various diseases.

The first study, published in The Lancet Regional Health–Europe, investigated the use of whole-genome sequencing to identify genetic causes of cerebral palsy in children.

The second study, published in Nature Communications, examined whether rapid whole-genome sequencing—with results available in three to seven days, compared with several weeks for standard testing—could improve the diagnosis and treatment of children with cancer.

“Whole-genome sequencing gives us an opportunity to better understand why a child develops a particular condition and, in some cases, to change how we care for that child,” said David Rowitch, MD, PhD, deputy director of Research at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s, professor of Paediatrics at the University of Cambridge and corresponding author of both studies.

The term for this type of care is “genomic medicine.” The Cedars-Sinai Newsroom spoke with Rowitch to discuss the studies’ implications for children and families and how Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s is working to expand access to genomic medicine in Los Angeles and beyond.

Whole-Genome Sequencing and Cerebral Palsy

What is cerebral palsy and how is it diagnosed?

Cerebral palsy is a lifelong condition caused by damage to the developing brain from premature birth, infections or brain injuries. Globally, 18 million people have cerebral palsy, and the condition can affect movement, muscle control, learning and communication skills. It’s typically diagnosed by a pediatrician or neurologist through physical and neurological tests and brain imaging.

Can cerebral palsy have a genetic cause, and how common might that be?

Recent evidence indicates that about 1 in 4 people with cerebral palsy may have an underlying DNA mutation in a specific gene. Genetics has increasingly become an important consideration when evaluating cerebral palsy, and research shows that more than 100 genes are linked to the condition.

Whole-genome sequencing, usually involving the child and both parents, can diagnose genetic conditions and help determine whether a variant was inherited or occurs in the child only.

When should a child with cerebral palsy have whole-genome sequencing?

The appropriate criteria for genetic testing in children with cerebral palsy are not yet well established. More guidelines are needed to help decide when to test. If a genetic cause is suspected, such as no known risk factors, testing children early may help guide treatment and care.

How does finding an underlying genetic cause change cerebral palsy treatment?

A genetic diagnosis can lead to precision medicine treatments and help physicians identify other health risks that should be monitored. For example, if we found that cerebral palsy is part of a genetic syndrome that has a cardiac component, we would refer that patient for cardiology consultation and assessment. In our study, we changed care plans for about 63% of children who received a genetic diagnosis.

How is whole-genome sequencing improving cerebral palsy care at Guerin Children’s?

Identifying the specific genes involved in the disease creates opportunities for new research that may lead to new treatments, such as gene therapy.

At Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s, we are researching a gene called CTNNB1, which is commonly found in patients with cerebral palsy. This research aims to help us understand what goes wrong in the nervous systems of children with this gene mutation. We recently launched a whole-genome sequencing protocol for use in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units to expand our research and its benefits to patients.

Rapid Whole-Genome Sequencing and Childhood Cancer

How can rapid whole-genome sequencing change a child’s cancer care?

Previous studies from the University of Cambridge showed that whole-genome sequencing was more effective than standard genetic tests for diagnosing childhood cancer, but results took three to six weeks.

Faster results can help clinicians provide a more precise diagnosis, make treatment decisions earlier, avoid unnecessary interventions or treatments, and adjust chemotherapy dose. In our study of 54 children with cancer, we concluded that about 50% of the cases benefited from having a more rapid return of results. For some children, we adjusted their chemotherapy dose to fit their metabolism; for others, we switched medications. In one dramatic case, we withheld treatment.

What are the next steps for bringing rapid whole-genome sequencing into routine pediatric cancer care?

Our study, although it was small and involved a limited patient population, showed clear benefits. National adoption of rapid whole-genome sequencing is being tested in the U.K. In the U.S., this will require institutions to champion this diagnostic approach and increase access and capacity.

At Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s, an important next step is to explore how these capabilities can be extended more broadly to pediatric oncology and other specialties where genomic information can make a difference. The goal is not simply to provide a diagnosis, but to help clinicians choose the right care for each child.

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Personalizing Disease Prevention From Birth

Preliminary research suggests GLP-1 medications may influence biological markers associated with aging and improve obesity, diabetes, heart disease, inflammation and sleep apnea. However, experts say it remains unclear whether these benefits stem directly from the medications or from the weight loss they cause.

Kirkland cautioned against taking GLP-1s solely in hopes of living longer. He expressed concerns about healthy, lean people using the medications off-label to optimize their health and longevity, a practice known as “biohacking.” The long-term risks of GLP-1 use among younger people without obesity remain unknown.

“My concern is that people could overread some of this stuff,” he told CNN.com.

Kirkland added that measures used in recent studies to estimate biological aging—such as changes in gene activity and protein levels—are still evolving. While these tools can be useful for studying large groups of people, he said, they do not yet offer reliable health information for an individual.

“They can vary tremendously from day to day within a person,” he told CNN.com.

Unrealistic expectations around GLP-1s extend beyond longevity claims to the weight loss process itself, where patients frequently experience frustrating plateaus.

Velazquez explained to Everyday Health that as people lose weight, metabolism naturally slows—especially when muscle mass is lost—while appetite-regulating hormones adapt to increase hunger and reduce the feeling of fullness.

“So essentially, your body is working against you and making it harder for you to lose weight as you continue the process,” she said. “These hormone signals get stronger with time and the more weight you try to lose.”

To safely overcome these plateaus, Velazquez recommended consulting a healthcare provider for personalized guidance on medication adjustments, proper nutrition, sleep, stress management and exercise.

Read the complete articles from CNN.com and Everyday Health.

“​​Nuestros hallazgos proporcionan una sólida justificación mecanística para estudiar los medicamentos GLP-1 como posibles tratamientos para la insuficiencia cardíaca”, dijo David Lefer, PhD, director de Investigación Traslacional del Departamento de Cirugía Cardíaca del Smidt Heart Institute de Cedars-Sinai y coautor sénior del estudio.

El estudio, publicado en la revista European Heart Journal, investigó los efectos de estos medicamentos en la insuficiencia cardíaca con fracción de eyección preservada. Este trastorno incurable, en el que el corazón bombea la sangre normalmente, pero es demasiado rígido para llenarse adecuadamente, representa más de la mitad de los aproximadamente 6.7 millones de casos de insuficiencia cardíaca que se registran cada año en Estados Unidos, según el American College of Cardiology.

Los investigadores administraron dosis bajas de semaglutida, un medicamento GLP-1, a ratas y minicerdos de laboratorio con una afección que imita un subtipo de insuficiencia cardíaca con fracción de eyección preservada asociado con la obesidad. Descubrieron que, aunque el medicamento no redujo el peso corporal general, disminuyó significativamente la rigidez del corazón. El medicamento también redujo el agrandamiento del corazón y la cicatrización del tejido. A los investigadores les alentó observar que el medicamento también eliminó la grasa dañina alrededor del corazón y el hígado.

“Esto abre la puerta a la posibilidad de recetar GLP-1 en dosis bajas para lograr una importante protección cardiovascular y, al mismo tiempo, minimizar los efectos secundarios comunes”, dijo Traci Goodchild, PhD, profesora de Cirugía Cardíaca en el Smidt Heart Institute y coautora sénior del estudio.

Los autores enfatizaron que los hallazgos del estudio no disminuyen los beneficios bien establecidos de la pérdida de peso para el corazón. En cambio, los resultados indican que el tratamiento con GLP-1 podría proporcionar beneficios cardiovasculares directos adicionales, independientes de la pérdida de peso.

“Estos datos sugieren que la semaglutida en dosis bajas tiene potentes efectos protectores sobre el corazón, independientes de su impacto en la pérdida de peso”, dijo Mahmoud Elbatreek, PhD, científico de proyecto del Departamento de Cirugía Cardíaca del Smidt Heart Institute y autor principal del estudio.

Otros autores de Cedars-Sinai incluyen a Zhen Li, Xiaoman Yu, Miguel Huerta, Xinheng Zhang, Hsin-Jung R. Yang y Michael E. Bowdish.

Otros autores incluyen a Natalie D. Gehred, Tatiana Gromova, Jingshu Chen, Naoto Muraoka, Martin Borch Jensen, Vinay Kartha, Chris Carrico, Timothy D. Allerton, Sanjiv J. Shah, Kathleen C. Woulfe, Timothy A. McKinsey, Edwin Yoo, David J. Polhemus y Thomas M. Vondriska.

Financiamiento: Este estudio recibió apoyo de las subvenciones HL181016 de los Institutos Nacionales de la Salud (NIH) (D.J.L.), HL105699 de los NIH (T.M.V.), HL174996 de los NIH (T.M.V. y D.J.L.) y HL159428 de los NIH (T.T.G.). D.J.L. recibió apoyo del California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM, PDEV-19141). N.D.G. recibió apoyo de la beca predoctoral PRE1026591 de la American Heart Association. T.A.M. recibió apoyo de las subvenciones R01HL171711 y HL181226 de los NIH y del Collaborative Sciences Award 24CSA1255857 de la American Heart Association. H.-J.R.Y. recibió apoyo de las subvenciones 1R01HL165211 y 1R01HL181091 de los NIH. D.J.P. recibió apoyo de una beca institucional de capacitación Ruth L. Kirschstein del National Research Service Award de los NIH (5T32HL007227).

Declaración de intereses: J.C., N.M., M.B.J., V.K. y C.C. trabajan para Gordian Biotechnology. S.J.S. es consultor de Abbott, Alleviant, Amgen, Aria CV, AstraZeneca, Axon Therapies, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Boston Scientific, Bristol Myers Squibb, Corvia, Cyclerion, Cytokinetics, Edwards Lifesciences, Eidos, Eli Lilly, Imara, Impulse Dynamics, Intellia, Ionis, Merck, MyoKardia, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron, Rivus, Shifamed, Tenax, Tenaya y Ultromics. T.A.M. es cofundador de Myracle Therapeutics, forma parte de los consejos asesores científicos de Eikonizo Therapeutics y Revier Therapeutics, y es consultor de Augustine Therapeutics. Los demás autores declaran no tener intereses que divulgar en relación con esta contribución.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University impulsa investigaciones innovadoras y educa a futuros líderes en medicina, ciencias biomédicas y ciencias de la salud aliadas. Más información sobre la universidad.

La iniciativa reúne a organizaciones comunitarias, proveedores de atención médica y especialistas en cesación del tabaco para identificar el consumo de tabaco, conectar a las personas con apoyo basado en evidencia y abordar los obstáculos que pueden dificultar dejarlo.

“Quit Alliance es realmente una red de organizaciones comunitarias con las que trabajamos, una alianza que ofrece apoyo afirmativo a distintas poblaciones”, dijo Zul Surani, director asociado de Participación y Vinculación Comunitaria y del Cancer Research Center for Health Equity de Cedars-Sinai. “Nos enfocamos en las comunidades LGBTQ+ porque descubrimos que tienen tasas más altas de consumo de tabaco, mientras que había muy poco apoyo y pocos servicios afirmativos disponibles para ayudar a las personas a dejarlo”.

El apoyo individual para dejar el tabaco es una parte del enfoque más amplio de la oficina de Participación y Vinculación Comunitaria para el control del tabaco. La oficina también capacita a las comunidades sobre los efectos nocivos del consumo de tabaco para que puedan abogar por entornos libres de humo en espacios compartidos, incluidos lugares de trabajo, centros de atención médica, áreas comunes de viviendas, restaurantes y otros espacios públicos.

Estas políticas ayudan a proteger a las personas del humo de segunda mano y apoyan el abandono del tabaco al cambiar las normas sociales y reducir las oportunidades de consumirlo. Para las comunidades LGBTQ+, las políticas libres de humo se combinan con servicios afirmativos y accesibles para dejar el tabaco, de modo que las personas que estén listas para dejarlo puedan recibir el apoyo que necesitan.

La iniciativa recibe fondos del Programa de Prevención del Tabaco del Departamento de Salud Pública del Condado de Los Ángeles y del Programa de Control del Tabaco de California. The Quit Alliance capacita al personal de organizaciones comunitarias y Centros de Salud Calificados Federalmente para dirigir talleres sobre cómo dejar el tabaco y conectar a los miembros de la comunidad con recursos.

Victor Crisanto, MPH, especialista certificado en cesación del tabaco de Cedars-Sinai, dirige capacitaciones para enfermeros, asistentes médicos, administradores de casos, educadores de salud y trabajadores de alcance comunitario que interactúan regularmente con pacientes y miembros de la comunidad.

Las capacitaciones abordan la ciencia de la adicción a la nicotina, los efectos del consumo de tabaco en la salud y los desafíos que pueden enfrentar las personas LGBTQ+ al intentar dejarlo.

Uno de los enfoques que Crisanto enfatiza es “preguntar, aconsejar y referir”. El personal aprende a preguntar sobre el consumo de tabaco y nicotina, aconsejar a las personas que hay apoyo disponible y referirlas a los recursos adecuados.

Este proceso puede incorporarse a los procedimientos existentes de una organización. Por ejemplo, una organización comunitaria puede agregar una pregunta sobre el consumo de tabaco a su formulario de admisión o capacitar al personal de alcance comunitario para abordar el tema durante las conversaciones con los clientes.

Crisanto también utiliza juegos de roles para que los participantes practiquen cómo responder a inquietudes comunes. Algunas personas pueden decir que ya han intentado dejar el tabaco, que experimentaron efectos secundarios de la terapia de reemplazo de nicotina o que todavía no están listas para dejarlo. El objetivo es ayudar al personal a responder con información y apoyo, sin ejercer presión.

“Se trata de aprender a evaluar en qué punto se encuentra cada persona”, dijo Crisanto. “Algunas personas simplemente no están listas. No quieren escuchar sobre dejar el tabaco. Aconsejarlas puede ser tan sencillo como decirles: ‘Cuando esté lista, tenemos información para usted’”.

The Quit Alliance también ofrece talleres para miembros de la comunidad. Estas sesiones abordan temas como establecer una fecha para dejar el tabaco, reducir su consumo, controlar los deseos intensos de fumar y los síntomas de abstinencia, desenvolverse en situaciones sociales y crear una red de apoyo.

Los participantes aprenden sobre asesoramiento individual, asesoramiento grupal, grupos de apoyo, terapias de reemplazo de nicotina y medicamentos para dejar el tabaco. El programa también conecta a las personas con recursos como Kick It California y organizaciones comunitarias que pueden ayudar a abordar otros obstáculos relacionados con la salud.

Para una persona que no tiene una vivienda estable, carece de un proveedor de atención médica o está enfrentando una condición de salud mental, dejar el tabaco puede no ser una prioridad inmediata. El programa trabaja con organizaciones comunitarias para ayudar a abordar esos desafíos mientras conecta a las personas con apoyo para dejar el tabaco.

“Cada persona tiene un proceso diferente para dejar el tabaco”, dijo Crisanto.

El programa utiliza encuestas de seguimiento para conocer el progreso de los participantes. Algunas personas informan que han intentado dejar el tabaco o que han pasado varios días sin consumirlo. Crisanto dijo que esos pasos representan un progreso significativo, incluso cuando la persona aún no ha dejado el tabaco por completo.

“Se necesitan varios intentos antes de que alguien deje el tabaco con éxito”, dijo. “Pero el hecho de que lo estén intentando ya es importante”.

Crisanto dijo que los enfoques adaptados culturalmente son esenciales para que los esfuerzos para dejar el tabaco sean eficaces. El consumo de tabaco puede estar influido por las redes sociales, el estrés, la discriminación, el acceso a la atención médica y otros factores sociales.

“Los enfoques adaptados, incluidos los dirigidos a las comunidades LGBTQ+, son importantes y necesarios”, dijo Crisanto. “Es importante escuchar y entender lo que necesita la comunidad con la que se trabaja, porque esa es la única manera de aumentar o lograr la equidad en salud para todos”.

El consumo de tabaco es un factor de riesgo importante para el cáncer y otras condiciones graves de salud. Al ayudar a las organizaciones comunitarias a identificar el consumo de tabaco, iniciar conversaciones de apoyo y conectar a las personas con servicios basados en evidencia, The Quit Alliance busca hacer que el apoyo para dejar el tabaco sea más accesible y afirmativo.

“Incluso si las personas asisten a una sola sesión, eso las coloca en el camino hacia dejar el tabaco”, dijo Surani. “Las ayudamos a comenzar el proceso”.

Lea más en Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Cáncer de Pulmón: Razones Para el Optimismo

The initiative brings together community organizations, healthcare providers and tobacco cessation specialists to help identify tobacco use, connect people with evidence-based support and address the barriers that can make quitting difficult.

“The Quit Alliance is really a network of community organizations that we work with—an alliance that is affirming to different populations,” said Zul Surani, associate director of Community Outreach and Engagement and of the Cancer Research Center for Health Equity at Cedars-Sinai. “We’re focused on LGBTQ+ communities because we found that they have higher tobacco use rates, while there was very little in terms of providing affirming support and services to help people quit.”

Individual cessation support is one part of the Cancer Community Outreach and Engagement office’s broader tobacco-control approach. The office also trains communities about the harmful effects of tobacco use so they can advocate for smoke-free environments in shared spaces, including workplaces, healthcare facilities, housing common areas, restaurants and other public places.

These policies help protect people from secondhand smoke while supporting cessation by changing social norms and reducing opportunities to use tobacco. For LGBTQ+ communities, smoke-free policies are paired with affirming, accessible cessation services so people who are ready to quit can receive the support they need.

The initiative is funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Tobacco Prevention Program and the California Tobacco Control Program. The Quit Alliance trains staff at community-based organizations and Federally Qualified Health Centers to lead cessation workshops and connect community members with resources.

Victor Crisanto, MPH, a certified tobacco cessation specialist at Cedars-Sinai, leads trainings for nurses, medical assistants, case managers, health educators and outreach staff members who regularly interact with patients and community members.

The trainings cover the science of nicotine addiction, the health effects of tobacco use and the challenges LGBTQ+ people may face when trying to quit.

One approach Crisanto emphasizes is “ask, advise, refer.” Staff members learn how to ask about tobacco and nicotine use, advise people that support is available and refer them to appropriate resources.

The process can be incorporated into an organization’s existing workflow. For example, a community organization might add a tobacco-use question to its intake form or train outreach staff to bring up tobacco use during conversations with clients.

Crisanto also uses role-playing to help participants practice responding to common concerns. Someone may say they have tried quitting before, experienced side effects from nicotine replacement therapy or are not ready to quit. The goal is to help staff respond with information and support rather than pressure.

“It’s learning how to assess someone based on where they’re at,” Crisanto said. “Some people are just not ready. They don’t want to hear about quitting. Advising them can be as simple as saying, ‘Whenever you’re ready, we have information for you.’”

The Quit Alliance also offers workshops for community members. These sessions cover topics such as setting a quit date, reducing tobacco use, managing cravings and withdrawal, navigating social situations, and building a support system.

Participants learn about one-on-one counseling, group counseling, support groups, nicotine replacement therapies and cessation medications. The program also connects people with resources such as Kick It California and community partners that can help address other barriers to health.

For someone who is unstably housed, does not have a healthcare provider or is managing a mental health condition, quitting tobacco may not be an immediate priority. The program works with community organizations to help address those challenges while connecting people with cessation support.

“Everybody has a different quit journey,” Crisanto said.

The program uses follow-up surveys to learn how participants are progressing. Some report making a quit attempt or going several days without tobacco. Crisanto said those steps represent meaningful progress, even when someone has not given up tobacco for good.

“It takes multiple attempts before someone successfully quits,” he said. “But the fact that they’re actually trying—that’s something.”

Crisanto said culturally tailored approaches are essential to effective tobacco cessation work. Tobacco use can be influenced by social networks, stress, discrimination, access to healthcare and other social factors.

“Tailored approaches, including for LGBTQ+ communities, are important and needed,” Crisanto said. “It’s important to listen and to see what the community you’re working with needs, because that’s the only way you’re going to increase or achieve health equity for all.”

Tobacco use is a major risk factor for cancer and other serious health conditions. By helping community organizations identify tobacco use, start supportive conversations and connect people with evidence-based services, The Quit Alliance aims to make cessation support more accessible and affirming.

“Even if people attend one session, that sets them on that pathway,” Surani said. “We help them start the journey.”

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Lung Cancer—Reasons for Optimism

Sara Ghandehari, MD, medical director of the Lung Cancer Screening Program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, told FOX 11 anchor Koco McAboy that the apparent early detection of the pope’s condition was encouraging.

“It’s very significant when lung cancer is detected at an early stage,” she said, adding that while most lung nodules, or growths, are benign, surgical removal may be appropriate when a nodule is found to be cancerous.

Ghandehari noted that removing part of a lung does not automatically prevent a patient from resuming normal daily activities.

“It very much depends on the individual’s lung health status prior to surgery,” she told McAboy.

If lung cancer has not spread, surgery alone “could be curative,” Ghandehari said. However, physicians must evaluate pathology results, including lymph node involvement and tumor markers, to determine whether follow-up therapies are necessary.

Karen Reckamp, MD, medical oncology director of the Women’s Guild Lung Institute at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, told CBS 2 anchors Sheba Turk and Jamie Yuccas that early-stage lung cancer diagnoses carry “very excellent chances for long-term survival.”

She highlighted that treatment advancements, such as immunotherapy and targeted therapies, continue to improve patient outcomes.

Reckamp also addressed the common misconception that lung cancer only affects smokers. “If you have lungs, you can potentially get lung cancer,” Reckamp said.

She told Turk and Yuccas that non-smoking-related lung cancers account for roughly 15% to 20% of cases today, driven by environmental factors like air pollution, secondhand smoke and radon gas exposure.

Because lung cancer often develops without symptoms, both experts underscored the importance of early detection and screening. High-risk adults—particularly those over 50 with a history of smoking—are advised to undergo annual low-dose CT screenings.

Physicians also encourage anyone experiencing persistent symptoms, such as a lingering cough, shortness of breath or unexplained weight loss, to seek a medical evaluation.

Watch the complete segments from FOX 11 and CBS 2.

The amygdala, located deep below the brain surface in the temporal lobe, is classically associated with emotional and social behavior. In memory, its role was thought to be limited to learning and recalling experiences that invoked fear or other strong feelings. But the new study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, uncovered a much broader role for the amygdala in forming long-lasting memories in general.

In effect, the amygdala acts as a filter, tagging a small subset of ongoing experiences that end up being stored in long-term memory and thereby available for later retrieval.

“Our results demonstrate that the activity of specific kinds of neurons in the amygdala predicts, while the person sees an image for the first time, whether that image will later be remembered,” said Ueli Rutishauser, PhD, director of the Center for Neural Science and Medicine at Cedars-Sinai and the study’s corresponding author. “Such episodic autobiographical memories, such as where we parked our car or how we spent a recent family vacation, are critical to navigating everyday life and a sense of who we are.”

Investigators found that the brain’s ability to tag novel experiences for storage in long-term memory relies on specific types of neurons in the amygdala that respond selectively to specific categories of images, such as those showing faces, animals or landscapes. The stronger these category neurons reacted when a person viewed an image of the category to which the cell responded, the stronger that person's ability to later recall that image.

The study’s data comes from recordings of single-neuron activity in 112 surgical patients who had electrodes surgically implanted into their brains to monitor epileptic seizures. Participants were first presented with novel images they had never seen before and then asked to recall them later in the day.

This finding is an example of the power of collaboration between scientists and physicians: It was the data collected across over 100 patients that allowed this key new scientific discovery, which was replicated in two different datasets in the study.

Collecting this large amount of data was made possible by a multi-institutional consortium led by Cedars-Sinai and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative.

“This is an impactful study that provides mechanistic insight into the role of the human amygdala—a region commonly associated with emotional responses—in determining which experiences and stimuli become lasting episodic memories. This rigorous human neuroscience study, which uses next-generation tools, has high potential to move discovery toward measurable health impacts,” said Mauricio Rangel-Gomez, PhD, program officer at NIH.

“Our findings have important clinical implications, as the memory impairments seen in disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and temporal lobe epilepsy might be partly due to disrupted processes within the amygdala,” said Rutishauser, also a professor of Neurosurgery. “The amygdala might therefore be a suitable new target for treating these disorders using neuromodulation and/or cellular therapies.”

The research was led by Jiayang Xiao, PhD, who is the first author of the study.

Rutishauser added that future research could establish whether the amygdala plays a similar role in forming memories for other sensory modalities, such as sounds and smells.

“This study’s insights are the latest in a long line of research led by Cedars-Sinai and collaborators dedicated to revealing how human memory functions,” said Adam Mamelak, MD, director of the Epilepsy and Functional Neurosurgery Program and professor of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai, and co-author of the study. “Beyond the pure scientific value of these breakthroughs, we are laser-focused on applying this new knowledge to improving the lives of patients.”

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Jonathan Daume, Natalia Kurilenko and Clayton Mosher.

Additional authors include Yousef Salimpour, William S. Anderson and Taufik A. Valiante.

Funding: This work was supported by the BRAIN Initiative through the National Institutes of Health (grant no. U01NS117839 to U.R.) and a Center for Neural Science and Medicine Postdoctoral Fellowship by Cedars-Sinai (to J.X.)

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Pero aún no es demasiado tarde para vacunarse. A medida que se acercan noviembre y diciembre, y las familias se preparan para viajar, reunirse y celebrar las fiestas, Cedars-Sinai está llevando clínicas gratuitas contra la gripe y exámenes de salud directamente a las comunidades de Los Ángeles.

A través de su programa de Mejoramiento de la Salud Comunitaria y su clínica médica móvil COACH for Kids, Cedars-Sinai está atendiendo a los residentes en los lugares donde viven, trabajan y se reúnen. Este esfuerzo refleja el compromiso de Cedars-Sinai de estar “Here. For L.A.” y promover la salud y el bienestar en toda la región.

“Durante más de un siglo, Cedars-Sinai ha atendido a comunidades vulnerables en todo Los Ángeles”, dijo Christina Harris, MD, vicepresidenta y directora de Equidad en Salud de Cedars-Sinai. “Estar aquí para Los Ángeles significa facilitar el acceso de las personas a la atención y los recursos que necesitan para mantenerse saludables”.

La gripe puede ser especialmente peligrosa para los niños pequeños, los adultos de 65 años o más, las mujeres embarazadas y las personas con enfermedades crónicas. Estos grupos tienen un mayor riesgo de presentar complicaciones graves, como neumonía, enfermedades que requieren hospitalización y, en algunos casos, la muerte. Cualquier persona puede presentar complicaciones graves por la gripe, incluso quienes gozan de buena salud.

Los síntomas de la gripe suelen comenzar repentinamente y pueden incluir fiebre o escalofríos, tos, dolor de garganta, secreción o congestión nasal, dolor de cabeza, fatiga y dolores musculares o corporales. Debido a que la influenza es contagiosa y puede propagarse antes de que las personas se den cuenta de que están enfermas, la vacunación es una manera importante de ayudar a reducir el riesgo de enfermarse y de presentar complicaciones graves.

Los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades recomiendan que todas las personas de 6 meses o más reciban una vacuna contra la gripe cada temporada. El organismo tarda aproximadamente dos semanas después de la vacunación en desarrollar los anticuerpos que protegen contra la gripe. Por eso, vacunarse en noviembre y diciembre es especialmente importante, ya que las personas viajan, participan en celebraciones y pasan más tiempo en espacios interiores con familiares y amigos.

“Si todavía no se ha vacunado, aún está a tiempo”, dijo Harris. “Vacunarse antes de las reuniones de las fiestas puede ayudar a protegerle a usted y a las personas que le rodean, especialmente a quienes son más vulnerables a una gripe grave”.

Personas de todas las edades, a partir de los 6 meses, son bienvenidas en las clínicas comunitarias de vacunación contra la gripe de Cedars-Sinai. Los niños deben estar acompañados por uno de sus padres o un tutor.

Próximas Clínicas Comunitarias Contra la Gripe

COACH for Kids
La clínica funciona de 9 a.m. a 3 p.m. y cierra de 12 a 1 p.m.
Martes, 27 de octubre
WIC Florence
501 E. Florence Ave.
Los Ángeles, CA 90003

Clínica Contra la Gripe de Young Israel of Century City
La clínica funciona de 9 a.m. a 11 a.m.
Domingo, 1 de noviembre
Young Israel of Century City
9317 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Ángeles, CA 90035

Nota: No se ofrecerá la vacuna nasal.

COACH for Kids
La clínica funciona de 10 a.m. a 4 p.m. y cierra de 12 a 1 p.m.
Martes, 3 de noviembre
WIC Florence
501 E. Florence Ave.
Los Ángeles, CA 90003

COACH for Kids
La clínica funciona de 9 a.m. a 2 p.m. y cierra de 12 a 1 p.m.
Sábado, 7 de noviembre
Northgate Gonzalez Market
944 E. Slauson Ave.
Los Ángeles, CA 90011

Exámenes de Salud y Clínica Contra la Gripe del Black Men’s Wellness Day
La clínica funciona de 7 a.m. a 12 p.m.
Sábado, 7 de noviembre
Earvin “Magic” Johnson Recreation Area
905 El Segundo Blvd.
Los Ángeles, CA 90059

COACH for Kids
La clínica funciona de 9 a.m. a 3 p.m. y cierra de 12 a 1 p.m.
Martes, 10 de noviembre
WIC Manchester
250 E. Manchester Ave.
Los Ángeles, CA 90003

COACH for Kids
La clínica funciona de 9 a.m. a 3 p.m. y cierra de 12 a 1 p.m.
Miércoles, 11 de noviembre
Superior Grocers Western Ave.
8811 S. Western Ave.
Los Ángeles, CA 90047

COACH for Kids
La clínica funciona de 9 a.m. a 3 p.m. y cierra de 12 a 1 p.m.
Jueves, 12 de noviembre
Superior Grocers La Brea
3480 S. La Brea Ave.
Los Ángeles, CA 90016

Feria de Envejecimiento Saludable de Santa Monica YMCA
La clínica funciona de 11 a.m. a 1 p.m.
Lunes, 16 de noviembre
Santa Monica Family YMCA
1332 6th St.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Exámenes de Salud y Clínica Contra la Gripe de Fairfax Library
La clínica funciona de 12:30 a 2:30 p.m.
Martes, 17 de noviembre
Fairfax Branch Library
161 S. Gardner St.
Los Ángeles, CA 90036

COACH for Kids
La clínica funciona de 9 a.m. a 3 p.m. y cierra de 12 a 1 p.m.
Jueves, 19 de noviembre
YWCA Angeles Mesa Empowerment Center
2519 W. Vernon Ave.
Los Ángeles, CA 90008

COACH for Kids
La clínica funciona de 9 a.m. a 3 p.m. y cierra de 12 a 1 p.m.
Lunes, 30 de noviembre
WIC Florence
501 E. Florence Ave.
Los Ángeles, CA 90003

Se recomienda hacer una cita, pero también se aceptan personas sin cita previa. Los participantes pueden visitar myturn.cdph.ca.gov y utilizar el código postal correspondiente para encontrar cualquier clínica temporal de Cedars-Sinai.

Puede encontrar información sobre clínicas comunitarias adicionales contra la gripe aquí.

Lea más en Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Pronóstico de Salud de Cedars-Sinai – Bienestar en Otoño