May '24: Selected Women's Health Updates

The end of May is approaching, which means a new edition of women’s health updates is in order! This month is rich in breast cancer breakthroughs. There is also a study on data privacy issues of women’s health apps, a digital health hospital program use case and a very illustrative example of why women-specific healthcare protocols are needed. Let’s go!

January 2024 Women’s Health Updates?

February 2024 Women’s Health Updates?

March 2024 Women’s Health Updates

April 2024 Women’s Health Updates

May 2d, the study in the Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia could potentially be a game changer for breast cancer treatment as researchers discovered how to preserve breast tissue outside the body in a special gel solution for at least a week. The discovery opens the door for personalized treatment and choosing the best drug for each patient, testing it on the tissue sample.

Globally, breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer, accounting for?11.6% of newly diagnosed cancer cases. Survival rates for breast cancer have improved significantly over the last decades. Women diagnosed with early breast cancer are 66% less likely to die from the disease than they were 20 years ago.

Listing more breast cancer-related updates here as well:?

May 23d, the early-stage discovery by The Institute of Cancer Research, London, published in the journal?Immunity describes a new way to kill cancer cells that could offer longer lasting protection to breast cancer patients.?

The researchers used a new targeted protein degradation technology called Protac to target a specific protein and cause “immunogenic cell death”. This means that the cancer cell is not only killed, but the immune system is mobilized to destroy any remaining cancer that has evaded treatment or become resistant to drugs.

You can find more breast cancer-focused studies here (Karolinska) and here (King's College London) and here you can read about a new pilot program to improve breast cancer surgery (Calgary).

May 2d, digital health program by Ochsner Health’s?Connected MOM, launched in 2016, cuts pre-term births by 20%. The program is built around remote blood pressure monitoring and is especially helpful in detecting the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, like preeclampsia, which is responsible for up to 7% of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. The case study can be found here.

May 8th, the first-of-its-kind study from France (BMJ) indicates a significant increase in the risk of developing intracranial meningioma associated with prolonged use of certain progestogens, hormones commonly used in women’s health.?

Researchers used the data of for 18 000 women who went through intracranial meningioma surgery (meningiomas are mostly non-cancerous tumors in the layers of tissue that cover the brain and spinal cord). Different types of progesterone were associated with 2.7-fold increased risk, 4.1-fold increased risk?and 5.6-fold increased risk.?

The study was observational and had its limitations, but given that medroxyprogesterone acetate is estimated to be used for birth control by 74 M women worldwide, more research is needed to better understand the risk.

May 13th, in the most extensive evaluation of the privacy practices of female health apps to date, researchers from King’s College London and University College London show that women’s health apps largely misuse sensitive data. The study looked at 20 most popular apps in Play Store:

• 35% of the apps claimed not to share personal data with third parties in their data safety sections but contradicted this statement in their privacy policies by describing some level of third-party sharing.
• 50% provided explicit assurance that users' health data would not be shared with advertisers but were ambiguous about whether this also included data collected through using the app.
• 45% of privacy policies outlined a lack of responsibility for the practices of any third party, despite also claiming to vet them.

Many of the apps in the study were also found to link users’ sexual and reproductive data to their Google searches or website visits.?

Clearly, considering how many registered users the apps have (and how much value they bring to women), it’s vital for the app developers to address the issues. It’s also critical that we are aware of these risks when talking about women’s health innovation.

May 15th, by refining MRI scans for women specifically, the researchers from the Universities of East Anglia (UEA), Sheffield and Leeds, were able to diagnose 16.5% more females with heart failure. The method to non-invasively derive the pressure in the heart using an MRI scanner has existed, but in women's hearts may respond differently to increases in pressure. Women suffer disproportionately from a type of heart failure where the pumping function of the heart is preserved but the ability of the heart to relax and fill with blood is impaired.?

This could have huge impact in the NHS, which diagnoses around 200,000 patients with heart failure each year.

I think this is a great example of why women’s health doesn't equate to women-specific conditions only, but must also include women-oriented protocols for any type of condition.

May 15th, BD got FDA approval for the use of self-collected vaginal specimens for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing when cervical specimens cannot otherwise be obtained. The approval allows for the specimens to be collected in a non-traditional health care setting such as a retail pharmacy or mobile clinic. Self-collection can improve cervical cancer screening access, with never-screened women demonstrating a more than two-fold increase in acceptance and participation,

25% of women in the U.S. do not receive regular cervical cancer screening, and approximately 50% of cervical cancer diagnoses are in never-screened?patients.

May 16th, Oura partners with Clue and UC Berkeley to study the impact of perimenopause on women’s health. Oura will donate rings to the participants in the UC Berkeley study and will collect biometric data, including?heart rate,?skin temperature,?heart rate variability, and?sleep changes.

The proposed study will use historical cycle data (cycle length and variability), a survey, Clue symptom tracking, and Oura data to help quantify when someone is entering perimenopause, and, if relevant, how far they are into their journey.

10% of women will stop working earlier than necessary due to their unmanaged symptoms of menopause. Meanwhile, menopause lacks research and awareness (less than half of the Clue participants over the age of 51 had heard about perimenopause from a healthcare provider).

May 17th, Nonhormonal drugs to treat menopause hot flashes are not getting enough insurance coverage. Hormonal replacement therapy doesn’t suit all women and can’t be taken by breast cancer patients. New nonhormonal drugs targeting brain receptors are starting to appear in the area: elinzanetant by Bayer could be in the market next year if approved by FDA,?fezolinetant by Astellas was approved in 2023. However, insurance companies are reluctant to cover this new generation of drugs (fezolinetant marketed as Veozah costs $550 per month) or are forcing women to try other drugs first, which are not specifically FDA-approved for management of hot flashes.

Read more about menopause research here.

And a bonus: Postpartum depression deep dive: a niche of a niche or a pressing public health matter?