Media Coverage

In Chicago, a New Approach to Gay and Bisexual Men With Prostate Cancer

Mr. Curtin’s search for a different approach led him to Dr. Channa Amarasekera, director of the Gay and Bisexual Men’s Urology Program at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. The program, which began taking patients only in August, is the first of its kind in the United States, and Dr. Amarasekera, who has focused his career on urologic care for gay and bisexual men and other sexual minorities, is the program’s first leader.

The Health Toll of Poor Sleep

A study from 2019 by researchers at Northwestern Medicine and Rice University found that grieving spouses who reported sleeping poorly had high levels of chronic, body-wide inflammation, which can increase their susceptibility to heart disease and cancer.

Airlines were beginning to recover from the pandemic, then Omicron showed up

Dr. Robert Murphy, professor of infectious diseases at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine says, while the omicron variant is concerning, there’s not a lot known about it yet.

Pregnancy risks increase with age but there’s no reason to believe risks ‘jump’ after turning 35, study suggests

Prenatal services may partially affect stillbirth and infant mortality rates after birth, but the study left out key information that impacts pregnancy outcome, said Dr. Priya Rajan, associate professor of maternal fetal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and chief of diagnostic ultrasound at Northwestern Medicine.

Glioblastomas, the aggressive brain tumors, might benefit from immunotherapy in some patients, Northwestern research suggests

As a neurosurgeon regularly treating glioblastomas, Dr. Adam Sonabend followed with interest the rise of immunotherapy, a new way to help cancer patients utilize the power of their own immune systems.
But until now, not much promise has been shown for patients with glioblastomas, an aggressive type of brain tumor that has no cure.

Omicron may cause milder symptoms. But experts aren’t breathing easy yet.

Whether the variant will spread as quickly in countries with higher vaccination rates is still to be determined, said Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, the bioinformatics director of the Center for Pathogen Genomics and Microbial Evolution at the Harvey Institute for Global Health and a research assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

“It might not even establish in other countries,” Lorenzo-Redondo said. “It’s still too early to know if this variant is going to spread. Maybe other factors, like higher vaccination, will stop this.”

A Heart Healthy Way to Eat

Dr. Neil J. Stone, a preventive cardiologist at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, who praised the thoughtfulness and expertise of the guidance committee, said in an interview, “There’s no such thing as one diet that fits all, but there are principles to form the basis of diets that fit everyone.”

Protection offered by booster shot beats ‘natural immunity,’ study suggests

Study leader Alexis Demonbreun, a cell biologist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the data demonstrate that no matter how well protected a vaccinated person may think she is, getting a booster shot is likely to increase her neutralizing antibodies — and with it, her immunity — considerably. And because scientists expect large antibody responses to create more durable immunity, the protection afforded by the booster should last longer than the initial two-shot regimen did.