Evidence Based Research | Patient Resources

We all know exercise is good for us, but that still leaves plenty of questions. How much exercise? Who benefits the most? And when in our lives? New research led by University of Pittsburgh psychologists pools data from dozens of studies to answer these questions, showing that older adults may be able to prevent declines in a certain kind of memory by sticking to regular exercise. "Everyone always asks, 'How much should I be exercising? What's the bare minimum to see improvement...

The immune system has cells stationed all over the body, and they're actually doing their business even if you're fit as a fiddle. This is shown in a new study published in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism. Until recently, they believed that the immune system was mostly dormant unless the body was under attack in connection with infections. However, it now turns out that the immune system most likely also plays an important role for perfectly healthy people and can affect ...

Cancer patients who have run out of options for immunotherapy may have a new possibility. It’s the gut microbiome. By changing the gut microbiome in advanced melanoma patients, who had previously failed to respond to treatment, the body responded to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy. Though the research is in phase II trials, it’s very positive news for those who have little hope. Researchers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) demonstrated that changing t...

Cancer can only develop and progress when the tumour cells can hide from the body's immune system. Cancer immunotherapies, which boost the body's immune defence against cancer, have emerged as promising therapies in multiple tumour types. However, the effectiveness of immunotherapies against ovarian cancer has remained modest. This is mainly since the mechanisms how ovarian cancer cells hide from the immune system have been unknown. Now, researchers at the University of Helsinki have...

Periodontal disease (PD) may increase the risk of sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC), findings from the population-based case-control COLDENT study suggest. The rate of new CRC diagnoses among individuals in the study who had a history of PD was nearly 50% higher than in those with no such history, after adjusting for a host of medical and demographic factors, say the investigators. This isn't the first time PD has been linked with extra-oral health outcomes, including gastrointestinal ca...