View this email in your browser<http://mailchi.mp/statnews/isyuoki1g1-580121?e=4aad33fd68> [STAT]<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=74ddac9d3a&e=4aad33fd68> Friday, February 2, 2018 [Morning Rounds by Megan Thielking] Follow STAT on Facebook<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=9a5375f87a&e=4aad33fd68> and Twitter<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=85f6ec9d96&e=4aad33fd68>, and visit us at statnews.com<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=d4a1c27ace&e=4aad33fd68> Happy Friday, folks! I'm here to get you ahead of the day's news in science and medicine. If you like this newsletter, tell a friend to sign up<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=42bfe48f3b&e=4aad33fd68>. Doctors and ethicists urge Congress not to pass ‘right to try’ legislation Dozens of doctors, medical ethicists, and lawyers are cautioning Congress that 'right to try' legislation runs the risk of harming patients' health. The Senate passed a bill in August that would allow patients with life-threatening conditions to access experimental drugs that haven't been approved by the FDA, but the bill is still sitting in a House committee. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has expressed reservations about the bill, but President Trump endorsed the idea in his State of the Union Speech earlier this week The group is planning to fire off the letter on Feb. 5. More here <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=98733ac604&e=4aad33fd68> from STAT's Ike Swetlitz. Do NFL players have a higher risk of early death? Just in time for Super Bowl Sunday, there’s a new paper out that looks at the long-term health of NFL players. Researchers combed through data on more than 3,800 NFL players who started in the league between 1982 and 1992, including 897 replacement players who were brought in to play during a short strike in 1987. The study didn't find any significant difference in the death rates between the two groups. But the researchers say since this was just an observational study and only a small proportion of the players had died, the long-term health of NFL players warrants more research. More from the authors here<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=42d4632bb6&e=4aad33fd68>. And if you're looking for more, STAT has you covered with all the science-related Super Bowl content you could desire: the science of superstar quarterback<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=0badedc8ea&e=4aad33fd68> Tom Brady, why pharma companies tend to shy away from<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=83fb9e111e&e=4aad33fd68> Super Bowl ads, and how a nutritionist helps<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=d58b597b2d&e=4aad33fd68> NFL players prep for the big game. There are persistent health disparities among HIV patients [87396691-e5ca-4560-8a09-e04a5b7a5bdb.png] Black individuals represent 12 percent of the U.S. population, but account for an estimated 43 percent of people living with HIV infection in the U.S. A new study<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=899091fa6b&e=4aad33fd68> finds that disparity doesn’t just show up in HIV prevalence — it also shows up in viral load suppression, which is when treatment reduces the amount of HIV in a person's blood to an undetectable level. Researchers found that just 41 percent of black patients with HIV had viral load suppression in 2014, compared to 50 percent of Hispanic patients and 56 percent of white patients. The authors are calling on doctors, local health departments, and community groups to tackle the obstacles that prevent black patients from getting needed HIV treatment. Inside STAT<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=52c3d50fb0&e=4aad33fd68>: CRISPR’ing bad genes, sparing good ones CRISPR is a very effective gene editor. But the challenge for CRISPR-wielding scientists is to edit only one of the two copies, or alleles, of every gene that people have, repairing the ever-so-slightly broken one and leaving the healthy one alone. In one of the first research papers set to be published in The CRISPR Journal<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=57fb07ffa1&e=4aad33fd68>, scientists in Boston report<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=09b9f1d3e6&e=4aad33fd68> they’ve carried out “allele specific” edits on a gene that, when mutated, destroys the eye’s photoreceptors and causes a certain kind of blindness. That’s an exciting proof-of-concept step. And there’s hope that the same trick might work for hundreds of other diseases where inheriting a single mutated gene is enough to cause problems. STAT’s Sharon Begley has the story<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=1be0026de5&e=4aad33fd68>. Lab Chat: Bacterial partners tied to colon cancer Scientists have discovered two types of bacteria that seem to contribute to colon cancer development — but only when they’re working in tandem. Here’s what Dr. Cynthia Sears of Johns Hopkins told me about the work, published in Science<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=1da8340e5a&e=4aad33fd68>. How did you discover these bacteria? In many patients with the most common form of colon cancer, there are bacteria that invade the inner mucus layer, which normally doesn’t have bacteria, and create a biofilm that changes the tissue biology. That bacteria came from many different groups. But in patients with a hereditary form of colon cancer, we saw the biofilms were made predominantly of two bugs. That was surprising, because we carry hundreds of bacteria in our colons, but somehow just two had set up shop. How do those bacteria interact? In one mouse model, each of the bugs alone didn’t induce tumors, but when we put them together, we got lots of tumors. We found that one of the bugs helps digest the mucus layer, and that makes it easier for the other to stick to the cells. In the absence of the first bacterium, the second didn’t colonize or stick very well. But with both bugs, there was much more DNA damage and inflammation. We think together, they change the DNA, which can lead to tumors. Research suggests inducing labor might reduce C-section risk New NIH-supported research <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=4695c160bc&e=4aad33fd68> suggests healthy, first-time mothers who have their labor induced during the 39th week of pregnancy might reduce the risk of needing a C-section. Researchers ran a trial with more than 6,100 first-time mothers who were randomly assigned to either have labor induced or receive standard care. In the group that had labor induced, 19 percent of pregnant women ended up needing a C-section, compared to 22 percent of those who didn’t. Rates of preeclampsia — a pregnancy complication that can cause blood pressure to spike — were also lower in the induced group. The finding contradicts current guidelines, which recommend against inducing labor without a medical need in first-time mothers who haven’t yet hit 41 weeks of pregnancy. What to read around the web today § The famine ended 70 years ago, but Dutch genes still bear scars. New York Times<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=26bb51209f&e=4aad33fd68> § Inside the top-secret abortion underground. Mother Jones<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=8f71ffd442&e=4aad33fd68> § A man who could finally afford to see a doctor after winning the lottery died three weeks later. Buzzfeed<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=af91f5698d&e=4aad33fd68> More reads from STAT § Flu vaccine provided dismal protection<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=05bf70a832&e=4aad33fd68> against this winter’s virus, early data suggest. § Trump’s 49 seconds on the opioid epidemic<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=7c31836fe1&e=4aad33fd68>: 5 questions from the front lines. The latest from STAT Plus § Concerns over one dengue vaccine raise alarms over others<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=af5054b346&e=4aad33fd68> in development. § CMS could have saved billions if generic substitution <https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=eb0651ba74&e=4aad33fd68> was aggressively pursued. Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend, [Megan] [Facebook]<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=8430a6e151&e=4aad33fd68> [Twitter]<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=08831d8178&e=4aad33fd68> [STAT]<https://statnews.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=41f358edcc&e=4aad33fd68>