ReportWire

Tag: Cancer

  • STUDY: Pandemic Disruptions To Health Care Worsened Cancer Survival – KXL

    NEW YORK (AP) — During the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts worried that disruptions to cancer diagnosis and treatment would cost lives. A new study suggests they were right.

    The federally funded study published Thursday by the medical journal JAMA Oncology is being called the first to assess the effects of pandemic-related disruptions on the short-term survival of cancer patients.

    Researchers found that people diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and 2021 had worse short-term survival than those diagnosed between 2015 and 2019. That was true across a range of cancers, and whether they were diagnosed at a late or early stage.

    Of course, COVID-19 itself was especially dangerous to patients already weakened by cancer, but the researchers worked to filter out deaths mainly attributed to the coronavirus, so they could see if other factors played a role.

    The researchers were not able to definitively show what drove worse survival, said Todd Burus of the University of Kentucky, the study’s lead author.

    “But disruptions to the health care system were probably a key contributor,” said Burus, who specializes in medical data analysis.

    COVID-19 forced many people to postpone cancer screenings — colonoscopies, mammograms and lung scans — as the coronavirus overwhelmed doctors and hospitals, especially in 2020.

    Earlier research had shown that overall cancer death rates in the U.S. continued to decline throughout the pandemic, and there weren’t huge shifts in late diagnoses.

    Recinda Sherman, a researcher on that earlier paper, applauded the new work.

    “As this study is the first to document pandemic-related, cause-specific survival, I think it is important,” said Sherman, of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries. “The more we understand about the impact of COVID-19, the better we will be able to prepare for the next one.”

    How could overall cancer death rates decline in 2020 and 2021, while short-term survival worsen for newly diagnosed patients?

    Cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment measures that for years had been pushing cancer death rates down did not suddenly disappear during the pandemic, Burus noted.

    “We didn’t forget how to do those things,” he said. “But disruptions could have changed access, could have changed how quickly people were getting treated.”

    Further research will show if any impact was lasting, said Hyuna Sung, senior principal scientist and cancer epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society.

    “Transient declines in survival that quickly recover may have little impact on long-term mortality trends,” she said.

    The new study tapped national cancer registry data to focus more specifically on patients who had a first diagnosis of a malignant cancer in 2020 and 2021. More than 1 million people were diagnosed with cancer in those two years, and about 144,000 died within one year, according to the researchers’ data.

    The researchers looked at one-year survival rates for those patients, checking for what stage they were at the time of diagnosis.

    They calculated that one-year survival was lower for both early- and late-stage diagnoses, for all cancer sites combined. Most worrisome were large differences seen in colorectal, prostate and pancreatic cancers, they said.

    Overall, the researchers found that more than 96% of people who got an early-stage cancer diagnosis in 2020 and 2021 — and more than 74% of those with a late-stage diagnosis — survived more than a year. Those rates were slightly lower than would have been expected based on 2015-2019 trends, resulting in about 17,400 more deaths than expected.

    Grant McHill

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  • Why Alcohol Raises the Risk of Cancer

    Carcinogens—substances that increase cancer risk—are often obvious. Some with the most research backing their dangers are tobacco, radiation, and asbestos.

    Also in that category? Alcohol.

    That, to a lot of people, comes as a surprise. According to a 2025 report by the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, citing a 2019 study, less than half of Americans recognize alcohol as a carcinogen—compared to 91% for radiation and 89% for tobacco. A more recent 2025 study from JAMA Oncology found that nearly 53% of Americans do not know whether alcohol has any link to cancer at all.

    It does. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists seven cancers whose incidence is known to be increased by alcohol: cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon and rectum, and breast. Some studies also show a link to stomach, pancreatic, and prostate cancer.

    “Using the very best data we have, comparing populations [of drinkers and non-drinkers], it appears that even very low levels of drinking—one drink a week—are associated with a measurable increase in risk over time,” says Dr. Ernest Hawk, head of prevention and population sciences at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “When you’re talking about cancer [and alcohol], there’s no safe level of exposure.”

    The increased wariness about alcohol from the scientific community is clashing with decreased caution from the federal government. Since the 1980s, federal dietary guidelines have urged Americans to limit their alcohol intake to no more than one drink a day for women and two for men. In January 2025, however, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued new, far looser recommendations, saying that individuals should “consume less alcohol for better overall health.” The guidelines also said that pregnant women, people struggling with alcohol use disorder, and those taking medications or with medical conditions that could interact with alcohol should avoid drinking altogether. But it was the elimination of the previous recommendations that made headlines.

    “The new dietary guidelines didn’t necessarily help with the specifics,” says Dr. Donald Hensrud, Associate Professor of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “They say don’t indulge in alcohol, but they didn’t give any specific amount. So there’s kind of an open-ended question at this point.”

    “Drinkers like a certain limit: ‘Drink moderately, and this is what moderate means,’” says Jennifer Hay, an attending psychologist in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “The [new] guidelines are valuable in telling people that less is best, but I definitely have concerns about vagueness.”

    “It’s not [the recommendation] I would have made,” says Hawk.

    Read More: Since Lung Cancer Is So Deadly, Why Don’t More People Get Screened?

    Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, supported the new policy. “There is alcohol on the dietary guidelines, but the implication is, don’t have it for breakfast,” he said at a White House briefing. “In the best-case scenario, I don’t think you should drink alcohol, but it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialize, and there’s probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way.”

    The government’s new approach notwithstanding, most research does sound a clear alert, establishing a convincing link between alcohol and cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates that alcohol played a role in about 5%, or nearly 100,000, of the 1.8 million cancer cases diagnosed in the U.S. in 2019, and about 4%, or nearly 25,000, of the 600,000 deaths. 

    Those are worrying numbers, but not everyone agrees they’re reliable ones. Research into the alcohol-cancer link relies on observational studies—asking populations of people if they do or don’t drink, and then counting and comparing the number and type of cancers in both groups. That’s very different from randomized clinical trials.

    “We don’t do studies where we ask people to smoke vs. not smoke and follow them for 50 years,” says Hawk. “It’s the same here, because alcohol is a toxin. We don’t tell folks, ‘Drink, and then let’s see what happens to your body.’”

    The observational approach leaves a lot of room for confounding factors to sneak in and influence the results—variables that could have been eliminated in a clinical study. “People who drink do other things that may influence their lives in terms of exercise, smoking, diet, stress,” says Dr. Larry Norton, medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Even if alcohol is involved in cancer, the link could be indirect, says Norton: “It could be the calories in alcohol; obesity is a known risk factor [for cancer]. Observational data is not all that reliable. At the extremes you get a clear message, but in more subtle cases, such as low to moderate alcohol consumption, you’re basically extrapolating.”

    Researchers posit multiple mechanisms at work that can lead to disease. The first involves acetaldehyde, a toxic metabolite that is produced when the body breaks down alcohol. Acetaldehyde can damage DNA and proteins, which can lead to the uncontrolled cellular growth that defines cancer. “Acetaldehyde can induce mutations,” says Hawk, “much like tobacco can induce mutations.”

    Alcohol can also lead to the creation of free radicals, reactive oxygen molecules that can damage DNA and proteins as well as fats. The reason so many healthy diets include antioxidant sources such as blueberries, raspberries, dark leafy greens, dark chocolate, and green tea is to battle free radicals. But consuming antioxidants is counterproductive if you’re also consuming a substance like alcohol that fuels free radical production.

    “Alcohol generates these reactive oxygen species, which cause inflammation,” Hawk says. “Inflammation helps to heal wounds when it’s controlled, but chronic, low-grade levels of inflammation are damaging to many parts of the body.”

    Read More: The Race to Measure Aging—And Why It Matters

    Additionally, alcohol can elevate the level of hormones, particularly estrogen, by impairing the ability of the liver to break the hormone down. This leads to higher estrogen levels in the blood, which in turn increases the risk of breast cancer.

    “Many tissues in a woman’s body are sensitive to estrogen, which increases cell proliferation,” says Hawk. The more aggressively cells are dividing, the likelier it is that there will be mutations or copying errors that lead to cancer. 

    “The increased risks of breast cancer start at very modest levels [of alcohol consumption],” says Hensrud, “less than a drink a day.”

    Overall, women are thought to be more susceptible to the carcinogenic effect of alcohol than men, says Hensrud, due partly to their lower average body weight—meaning any amount of alcohol goes metabolically further—and partly to lower levels of gastric alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme in the stomach that initiates the digestion of alcohol. According to the Surgeon General’s report, the lifetime risk of developing any type of cancer goes from about 16% if a woman consumes less than one drink per week, to 19% if she has one drink daily, to nearly 22% for two drinks daily. For men, the figure is 10% for less than one drink a week, 11% for one drink daily, and 13% for two drinks daily.

    Finally, for both men and women, alcohol interferes with the absorption of nutrients, especially vitamin B1, B12, folic acid, and zinc. “Interfering with things like folate can set tissues up for cancer,” says Hawk. At the same time, alcohol makes it easier for the cells in the mouth to absorb carcinogens, which is especially dangerous for people who both drink and smoke or use other tobacco products. One December 2025 study conducted in India and published in BMJ Global Health found that just one drink a day was linked with a 50% increase in the risk of oral cancer; combined with using chewing tobacco, that figure rose to 62%.

    Read More: How to Die Young at a Very Old Age

    Where this leaves people who drink is unclear. If the risk of oral cancer jumps with just a single drink a day and breast cancer risk climbs with even less than that, is there such a thing as a safe level of alcohol? Maybe not.

    “Anything that causes inflammation is associated with some cancer effects,” says Norton. Alcohol surely checks that box—but just as there are gradations in the amount people drink, there may be, too, gradations in the dangers consumption poses.

    “It’s dose-dependent,” says Norton. “For sure, people who drink a lot of alcohol—in the range of four or five or more drinks a day—have a lot of adverse health effects.” The data, he says, are less clear at the level of one drink a day. “There’s realistic scientific uncertainty in this regard.”

    Hay still counsels caution. “Two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women was the standard, but that already increases your cancer risk,” she says. 

    Eliminating the danger means eliminating alcohol—but even that may not be a perfect solution. A history of drinking may have done lasting damage that could still lead to cancer, in much the way a history of smoking does.

    “There’s some decline in risk if you quit,” says Hensrud. “But there’s also a sort of memory there as well. So our total amount that we drink over our lifetime probably does make a difference.”

    Still, as Hay puts it, less is likely best—with abstinence, if it’s achievable, optimal. “The risk is measurable,” says Hawk. “And it’s avoidable.”

    Jeffrey Kluger

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  • Supreme Court may block thousands of lawsuits over Monsanto’s weed killer

    WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court announced Friday it will hear Monsanto’s claim that it should be shielded from tens of thousands of lawsuits over its weed killer Roundup because the Environmental Protection Agency has not required a warning label that it may cause cancer.

    The justices will not resolve the decades-long dispute over whether Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, causes cancer.

    Some studies have found it is a likely carcinogen, and others concluded it does not pose a true cancer risk for humans.

    However, the court may free Monsanto and Bayer, its parent company, from legal claims from more than 100,000 plaintiffs who sued over their cancer diagnosis.

    The legal dispute involves whether the federal regulatory laws shield the company from being sued under state law for failing to warn consumers.

    In product liability suits, plaintiffs typically seek to hold product makers responsible for failing to warn them of a known danger.

    John Durnell, a Missouri man, said he sprayed Roundup for years to control weeds without gloves or a mask, believing it was safe. He sued after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

    In 2023, a jury rejected his claim the product was defective but it ruled for him on his “strict liability failure to warn claim,” a state court concluded. He was awarded $1.25 million in damages.

    Monsanto appealed, arguing this state law verdict is in conflict with federal law regulating pesticides.

    “EPA has repeatedly determined that glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide, does not cause cancer. EPA has consistently reached that conclusion after studying the extensive body of science on glyphosate for over five decades,” the company told the court in its appeal.

    They said the EPA not only refused to add a cancer warning label to products with Roundup, but said it would be “misbranded” with such a warning.

    Nonetheless, the “premise of this lawsuit, and the thousands like it, is that Missouri law requires Monsanto to include the precise warning that EPA rejects,” they said.

    On Friday, the court said in a brief order that it would decide “whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts a label-based failure-to-warn claim where EPA has not required the warning.”

    The court is likely to hear arguments in the case of Monsanto vs. Durnell in April and issue a ruling by late June.

    Monsanto says it has removed Roundup from its consumer products, but it is still used for farms.

    Last month, Trump administration lawyers urged the court to hear the case.

    They said the EPA has “has approved hundreds of labels for Roundup and other glyphosate-based products without requiring a cancer warning,” yet state courts are upholding lawsuits based on a failure to warn.

    Environmentalists said the court should not step in to shield makers of dangerous products.

    Lawyers for EarthJustice said the court “could let pesticide companies off the hook — even when their products make people sick.”

    “When people use pesticides in their fields or on their lawns, they don’t expect to get cancer,” said Patti Goldman, a senior attorney. “Yet this happens, and when it does, state court lawsuits provide the only real path to accountability.”

    David G. Savage

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  • ‘It Ends With Us’ author Colleen Hoover reveals cancer diagnosis – National | Globalnews.ca

    Colleen Hoover, the author who penned It Ends With Us, is opening up about her recent cancer diagnosis.

    The 46-year-old author told her 1.9 million Instagram followers that she has one more day of radiation left at Texas Oncology.

    “Second to last day of radiation,” she wrote on Monday on her Instagram stories. “I wish I could blame my hair and facial expressions on @Texas.Oncology, but they’ve been great. Hope you never need them, but highly recommend them.”


    A screengrab of Colleen Hoover’s Instagram Stories.

    @ColleenHoover / Instagram

    It was not immediately clear what kind of cancer Hoover is being treated for or how long she has been undergoing treatment but her health update comes after she shared details about the diagnosis last week.

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    In a Facebook post on Friday, Hoover gave some details on her cancer journey, writing, “I got results back today from the geneticist that say my cancer did not come from family genes.”

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    “It also didn’t come from the two main causes of the cancer, which are HPV and excessive hormones. This means it was more than likely environmental/lifestyle, which is lack of exercise, poor diet and stress,” she wrote.

    The best-selling author said she is “happy and grateful to be alive.”

    “But I hate vegetables. I hate when I have to get off the couch. I hate sweating. I hate when science is right,” she continued. “If you see me at the gym, don’t even tell me good job. If you see me at a restaurant eating grilled chicken and drinking water, I’m probably real mad about it.”


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    In late October 2025, Hoover said she had to miss the premiere for the film adaptation of her book Regretting You due to “unavoidable surgery.”

    “I hate to have to announce this, but I will not be moderating the signing for @lukasgage this month, nor will I be able to attend the premiere or any events for @regrettingyoumovie. I’m super bummed, but am having an unavoidable surgery and can’t travel for a while,” she wrote at the time.

    “I’ll live vicariously through you guys. So sad to miss this movie release and premiere, but so grateful to all the actors and the team who put this together.”

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    © 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

    Katie Scott

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  • Cancer Rates Are 82% Higher For Younger Women—Here’s Why

    Despite these troubling trends, there’s positive news: overall cancer survival rates continue to improve, thanks to advances in early detection, targeted therapies, and lifestyle interventions. The U.S. cancer mortality rate has dropped by 34% since 1991, largely due to declines in smoking rates and better screening practices.

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  • Barry Manilow gives fans positive health update following his recent cancer diagnosis

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    Barry Manilow gave fans an update on his health shortly after sharing his cancer diagnosis.

    In an Instagram photo shared Friday, the 82-year-old singer was lying in a hospital bed in a green hospital gown with a smile on his face, captioning the post, “Better Today!”

    Fans were happy to see the “Copacabana” singer was doing better, with many sending him love and positive wishes in the comments section.

    “We love you Barry!! God is good! Can’t wait to see you again soon.”

    Manilow gave his fans a health update, letting them know he is doing better. (Barry Manilow Instagram)

    PINK HOSPITALIZED ON NEW YEAR’S EVE, RECOVERS FROM CHALLENGING 2025

    “I’ve loved you Barry for 50 years! My heart skipped a beat when I heard you were sick,” another said. “So glad to see you are doing well and recuperating.”

    Manilow first shared that a cancerous spot had been found on his lungs in an Instagram post shared in late December.

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    He explained that after suffering “through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” his doctors ordered more tests out of an abundance of caution and found something more serious.

    “Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK. The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed. It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early. That’s the good news.”

    Barry Manilow performing on stage at the "Manilow: The Last Seattle Concert" in July 2025.

    Manilow first shared his cancer diagnosis last month. (Mat Hayward/Getty Images)

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    “The bad news is that now that the ‘Christmas A Gift of Love’ concerts are over, I’m going into surgery to have the spot removed,” he continued. “The doctors do not believe it has spread, and I’m taking tests to confirm the diagnosis. So, that’s it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and ‘I Love Lucy’ reruns.”

    He went on to apologize to all his fans who had already purchased tickets, telling them he was “looking forward to the January shows” as much as they were and that he “hate[s] having to move everything around.”

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    Manilow is known for hits such as “I Write the Songs” and “Can’t Smile Without You,” but he told NBC News in April 2024 he didn’t think his biggest hit, “Copacabana,” would become what it did. He explained he and his co-producer at the time, Ron Duarte, “never thought it would ever get played on the radio.”

    Barry Manilow in concert in October 1975.

    Manilow didn’t think his hit song “Copacabana” would go on to become as big as it did. (Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images )

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    “But we took it to a disco, when there were discos, and we asked the DJ to play it,” Manilow said. “And everybody ran to the dance floor and started to dance like they were back in the 1940s. They were dipping the girls and all because, you know, it’s ‘Copa.’ And, I said to Ron, ‘We may be onto something with this one.’ And then, it turned out to be the most popular song in my catalog.”

    Lori Bashian is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. 

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  • A new mom battling postpartum depression skipped a routine appointment. An unrelated visit led to an unexpected diagnosis.

    Ameilia Boodoosingh Gopie didn’t expect the deep depression after the birth of her first daughter in August 2022. In the months that followed, Gopie struggled to get out of bed and couldn’t spend time with her daughter. Her husband was essentially “a single dad for eight months,” she said. Routine appointments fell by the wayside. 

    After nearly a year, Gopie finally began to feel better. She was determined to make up for lost time. She took her daughter to visit family in New York, Canada and Trinidad. Soon, her daughter was walking and talking. Gopie was so distracted by “getting to love on my baby” that she continued skipping regular appointments. 

    In December 2024, Gopie realized that a cut she had given herself while shaving had become infected. Her primary care physician reminded her of the importance of annual appointments, especially her mammogram. She said her dense breasts qualified her for earlier screenings. After their conversation, Gopie made an appointment. The results of her mammogram were abnormal, so her doctor ran another test. 

    On Christmas Eve, she received the results: She had Stage III breast cancer. 

    Ameilia Boodoosingh Gopie and her daughter decorate for Christmas shortly before her diagnosis. 

    Ameilia Boodoosingh Gopie


    “Just saying that C-word ripped me and my husband to pieces,” Gopie, now 42, said. “I remember us both crying like two-year-olds. And my husband’s holding my daughter. My daughter’s like, ‘It’s OK, Dada. It’s OK, Mama.’ She didn’t know any better, she was just trying to make her parents stop crying.” 

    Coping with aggressive treatment 

    Gopie and her family celebrated that Christmas as normally as possible. On December 26, she said they “hit the ground running” to get a second opinion and figure out a treatment plan.

    Further testing determined that Gopie had triple-positive breast cancer. The subtype affects about 10% of breast cancer patients, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It has hormone receptors that make it more likely to respond favorably to treatment, but tends to be aggressive and present at a later stage, said Dr. Stuart Samuels, a radiation oncologist at the University of Miami Health System’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center who treated Gopie. The disease had also spread to Gopie’s lymph nodes. 

    Doctors recommended aggressive treatment beginning with chemotherapy. It had uncomfortable side effects, including pain, nausea and vomiting, Gopie said. Eventually, she lost her hair.

    Through it all, Gopie said it was hard to spend time with her daughter or stay focused at work. Gopie did what she could, prioritizing family time. When she was too sick to be with her daughter, she wrote letters to her and planned activities for when she was feeling better. 

    1000213458.jpg

    Ameilia Boodoosingh Gopie and her daughter’s toy.

    Ameilia Boodoosingh Gopie


    “As a mom, you just keep jumping through another hoop, and you’re like, ‘It’s OK, as long as she’s good,’” Gopie said. “You just keep going.” 

    A video diary, recorded before each treatment session, became a surprising source of strength, she said.

    “I would tell that video how I felt, if I was happy, if I was sad, if I was nervous, what I think I’m going to expect that day, what I think I want for that day. I prayed every day and I still pray, but talking to myself every time before chemo helped a lot,” Gopie said. “I realized doing those videos helped me to just release my feelings at that time.” 

    “It gets overwhelming” 

    After finishing chemotherapy, Gopie underwent a double mastectomy. Samuels said surgeons found “quite a bit of cancer left in the breast,” as well as in her armpit. That meant she would need radiation. 

    Samuels administered the treatment over the next three weeks. Gopie said the radiation had new side effects, including intense headaches and a burning feeling in her skin. 

    Later tests showed she would need more chemotherapy. The treatment was exhausting, Gopie said, and made it hard for her to work and spend time with her family. Most of her focus went to just putting one foot in front of the other, she said.  

    1000213462.jpg

    Ameilia Boodoosingh Gopie, her husband and her daughter.

    Ameilia Boodoosingh Gopie


    Gopie is still “in a limbo area,” Samuels said, but “the hardest part is over.” When Gopie spoke to CBS News, she was still undergoing radiation, taking a daily medication and receiving a regular hormone therapy infusion.

    “She still has an aggressive cancer, but she’s just living her life,” Samuels said. “Now it’s really about recovery and enjoying her daughter.” 

    “Learning to be the new Ameilia”

    Gopie said she has been working on finding a new normal. She recently had reconstructive surgery and said she is beginning to feel more like herself. 

    “It’s interesting, you know, the life that I live. I’m trying to maintain the old Ameilia, but now to go through the new journey that I’m going through, I’m also learning to be the new Ameilia, who goes through pains and nausea and wakes up with huge headaches and has a three-year-old,” Gopie said. “It gets overwhelming.” 

    Throughout it all, the depression that haunted Gopie early in her daughter’s life has never returned. 

    “Thank goodness, I haven’t gone through that,” Gopie said. “I try my best to enjoy life. I know I’m going to be fine. I want to enjoy every second with my baby. I want to sing with her and laugh at her and dance with her and write things to her and leave it all over the house. I keep it positive.”  

    545394444-10161487286392401-7745783308224515548-n-1.jpg

    A recent photo of Ameilia Boodoosingh Gopie and her daughter.

    Ameilia Boodoosingh Gopie


    Edited by

    Lucia I Suarez Sang

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  • ‘My dream job’: How one woman’s book drive is transforming the lives of kids with cancer – WTOP News

    Emily Bhatnagar’s father was diagnosed with cancer when she was 17. She started a book drive in his honor called For Love & Buttercup for children with cancer.

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    How one woman’s book drive is transforming the lives of kids with cancer

    Emily Bhatnagar’s world was turned upside down after learning about her father Mike Bhatnagar’s cancer diagnosis.

    “He’s my best friend, so it was really painful to see,” she said.

    The then 15-year-old was attending Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, when her father was diagnosed with Stage 4 thyroid cancer.

    “It came as a shock to everyone because he was the guy who literally never got sick. He was like, the healthiest person ever, not even like a cough a year, I swear,” Emily said.

    Once he started going through cancer treatments, reality set in for the high schooler. Emily’s physical and mental health began to take a serious toll, and she described it as the darkest time she’s ever experienced.

    When she was 17, she decided she needed to take action.

    “Maybe if I channel this pain into something else, it might help both me and someone who’s really struggling,” Emily said.

    That’s when the idea for For Love & Buttercup, a nonprofit book drive for children with cancer, was born.

    She wrote a message on NextDoor, an app that allows local communities to easily connect, asking for book donations.

    “I was expecting like maybe a few responses, but my phone was blowing up with people who wanted to donate books and were in the area. So I spent that summer like practically going house to house picking up books and from there, I cleaned them and donated them and when it started picking up, I was able to create an Amazon wish list, which is how most people donate books now,” Emily said.

    For Love & Buttercup was named after the buttercup flower, which she described as “teeny” and “wholesome.”

    “That is the feeling I sort of wanted these kids to feel for just a teeny bit when they open the brand new book. Just that pure, joyful, youthful innocence where they can just be free and like, be young and I thought For Love & Buttercup captured that beautifully,” Emily said.

    Over the course of more than four years, Emily has donated 25,000 books to various hospitals in the D.C. area, including MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, where her father receives treatment, Children’s National and Holy Cross. She has also donated to hospitals in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

    “It’s truly my dream job,” Emily said.

    Emily Bhatnagar sits among books for donation.
    (Courtesy Jan Galvan)

    Courtesy Jan Galvan

    Books strewn across table for book drive at For Love & Buttercup close up
    Over the course of more than four years, Bhatnagar has donated 25,000 books to various hospitals in the D.C. area as part of her nonprofit book drive for children with cancer, For Love & Buttercup.
    (WTOP/Ana Golden)

    WTOP/Ana Golden

    Books stacked on a table for book drive at For Love & Buttercup
    Donated books are stacked on a table in Gaithersburg, Maryland, for the book drive.
    (WTOP/Ana Golden)

    WTOP/Ana Golden

    Books stacked neatly at For Love & Buttercup
    Bhatnagar’s book drive collects a wide variety of children’s books.
    (WTOP/Ana Golden)

    WTOP/Ana Golden

    Books stacked for a book drive at For Love & Buttercup
    Bhatnagar started the book drive after her father was diagnosed with cancer.
    (WTOP/Ana Golden)

    WTOP/Ana Golden

    Emily’s father, Mike, said the book drive has been fulfilling, particularly when he joins his daughter to deliver books.

    “It keeps her busy. It keeps her out of my hair,” Mike said with a laugh. “She’s turning out to be a more responsible person and she spends a lot of time in it even though she has to do a lot of homework for college. She’s doing a great job.”

    Now, Emily is 21 years old and doing a remote program at the University of Pennsylvania so she can take care of her father. While Mike’s battle with cancer is ongoing, she said he’s in great spirits.

    “He’s the cheeriest person ever and he’s been doing really well,” Bhatnagar said.

    Why books?

    As a child, Bhatnagar was very shy. She would often find herself hiding behind big picture books in class in an attempt to not be seen.

    “But I think at one point or another I started actually reading the pages inside these books and I was just so fascinated,” she said. “From there, books and I were inseparable practically. They were my comfort during everything, during the times I was too shy to speak in class and later as a teenager during my dad’s battle with cancer.”

    She added that her childhood was really lonely at times, so she’s always had a soft spot for children.

    “Meeting the kids is my absolute favorite,” Emily said.

    How you can donate

    You can send Bhatnagar a direct message on Instagram if you have a gently used book you’d like to donate. Her account is @forloveandbuttercup.

    Another way to donate is through the Amazon wish list that’s linked in her Instagram biography. Those books are brand new and are good for children who are at high risk for infection.

    Or, if you’re feeling hungry, you can donate books at Emily’s parents’ bread shop, Monsoon Kitchens in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

    Books for all age ranges are acceptable, from baby board books to novels.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

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    Ana Golden

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  • Tatiana Schlossberg, The Granddaughter Of The Late President John F. Kennedy, Has Died At 35 – KXL

    Caroline Kennedy, ambassador of the United States to Australia, left, arrives with her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, center left, and her children, Tatiana Schlossberg, center right, and Jack Schlossberg, right, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023, before the presentation ceremony for the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

    BOSTON (AP) — Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, has died. She was 35.

    Schlossberg, the daughter of Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and Edwin Schlossberg, revealed she had terminal cancer in a November 2025 essay in The New Yorker. A family statement disclosing her death was released Tuesday on social media by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

    “Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,” the family’s statement said. It did not disclose a cause of death or say where she died.

    Schlossberg was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in May 2024 at 34. After the birth of her second child, her doctor noticed her white blood cell count was high. It turned out to be acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation, mostly seen in older people.

    In the essay, “A Battle With My Blood,” Schlossberg recounted going through rounds of chemotherapy and two stem cell transplants and participating in clinical trials. During the most recent trial, she wrote, her doctor told her “he could keep me alive for a year, maybe.”

    Schlossberg also criticized policies pushed by her mother’s cousin, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in the essay, saying policies he backed could hurt cancer patients like her. Her mother had urged senators to reject his confirmation.

    “As I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers,” the essay reads.

    Schlossberg had worked as a reporter covering climate change and the environment for The New York Times’ Science section. Her 2019 book “Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have” won the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award in 2020.

    Schlossberg wrote in The New Yorker essay that she feared her daughter and son wouldn’t remember her. She felt cheated and sad that she wouldn’t get to keep living “the wonderful life” she had with her husband, George Moran. While her parents and siblings, Rose and Jack, tried to hide their pain from her, she said she felt it every day.

    “For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry,” she said. “Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

    More about:

    Jordan Vawter

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  • Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of JFK, dies at 35 after revealing cancer diagnosis


    Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of late President John F. Kennedy, has died shortly after announcing she had a terminal cancer diagnosis, the JFK Library Foundation said Tuesday. 

    “Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,” read a message from her family on the institution’s Instagram account, alongside an image of Schlossberg. 

    Schlossberg, 35, who had a career as an environmental journalist, wrote in an essay published by The New Yorker last month that she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2024, shortly after the birth of her second child. She underwent grueling treatment, including chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, but the cancer returned and she was eventually given a prognosis of one year to live, she wrote. 

    Tatiana Schlossberg speaks at an event in New York City in on Sept. 9, 2019.

    Craig Barritt/Getty Images


    This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • Woman knits scarf with each color tracking daily temperatures

    A Baltimore County knitter’s unique scarf is not only vibrant: Each color signifies the daily weather.At her Maryland home, Rose Armentrout has an entire room dedicated to her knitting yarn and needles.”I try to organize it by type,” Armentrout told sister station WBAL-TV. “This bin is the cotton and this bin is the cashmere.”The room serves as Armentrout’s safe space, a sign of her dedication to knitting.”It helps you get through a lot of stuff. My husband and I both have had cancer. He is going through treatment now, so there’s a lot of hours spent sitting at the cancer center. So, I knit,” Armentrout said. “When I was going through treatments, I knitted scarves for all the nurses and doctors.”This year, Armentrout embarked on a project to knit a scarf that reflects the temperature for each day.”I made myself up a card, so I do single-digits is lilac, and 10 to 20 (degrees) is purple; 21 to 30, and so on by 10 digits, within that range,” Armentrout said. “I knit two rows, and whatever color I have decided for that temperature range, it’s like, ‘OK, I accomplished something today.’”Armentrout first saw the idea on Ravelry, a social networking site that connects knitters from all over the world.”My first thought was, ‘That’s weird.’ And then, it was intriguing as I looked into it,” Armentrout said. “The original idea behind it, though, was actually tracking temperature changes. It was about climate change, to see how much it has changed over the years, and how we are being affected by climate change.”As Armentrout completes her first temperature scarf with a few days left in 2025, she plans to wear it proudly.”I’m calling it my ‘Dr. Whoish temperature scarf’ because it’s very Dr. Whoish to me with all the colors, but it’s interesting, too, that you can see from the cold to the hot and back again,” Armentrout said.Armentrout is not finished with her knitting projects. She plans to knit another temperature scarf next year with the temperatures from her mother’s birth year, 1927, and compare them to this year’s temperatures.

    A Baltimore County knitter’s unique scarf is not only vibrant: Each color signifies the daily weather.

    At her Maryland home, Rose Armentrout has an entire room dedicated to her knitting yarn and needles.

    “I try to organize it by type,” Armentrout told sister station WBAL-TV. “This bin is the cotton and this bin is the cashmere.”

    The room serves as Armentrout’s safe space, a sign of her dedication to knitting.

    “It helps you get through a lot of stuff. My husband and I both have had cancer. He is going through treatment now, so there’s a lot of hours spent sitting at the cancer center. So, I knit,” Armentrout said. “When I was going through treatments, I knitted scarves for all the nurses and doctors.”

    This year, Armentrout embarked on a project to knit a scarf that reflects the temperature for each day.

    “I made myself up a card, so I do single-digits is lilac, and 10 to 20 (degrees) is purple; 21 to 30, and so on by 10 digits, within that range,” Armentrout said. “I knit two rows, and whatever color I have decided for that temperature range, it’s like, ‘OK, I accomplished something today.’”

    Armentrout first saw the idea on Ravelry, a social networking site that connects knitters from all over the world.

    “My first thought was, ‘That’s weird.’ And then, it was intriguing as I looked into it,” Armentrout said. “The original idea behind it, though, was actually tracking temperature changes. It was about climate change, to see how much it has changed over the years, and how we are being affected by climate change.”

    WBAL

    Rose Armentrout embarked on a project to knit a scarf that reflects the temperature for each day.

    As Armentrout completes her first temperature scarf with a few days left in 2025, she plans to wear it proudly.

    “I’m calling it my ‘Dr. Whoish temperature scarf’ because it’s very Dr. Whoish to me with all the colors, but it’s interesting, too, that you can see from the cold to the hot and back again,” Armentrout said.

    Armentrout is not finished with her knitting projects. She plans to knit another temperature scarf next year with the temperatures from her mother’s birth year, 1927, and compare them to this year’s temperatures.

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  • Just One Workout Could Help Your Body Fight Cancer, Study Finds

    The scientists took blood samples before the workout, immediately afterward, and again 30 minutes later. They weren’t just looking at heart rate or calories burned. Instead, they measured something called myokines, small proteins released by muscles during exercise that act like messengers, influencing different systems in the body. Some of these myokines, including IL-6, SPARC, decorin, and oncostatin M, have been shown in lab settings to suppress cancer cell growth.

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  • Minnesota’s only Spanish-language cancer support group changing lives for decades


    For two decades, the only Spanish-language cancer support group in the state has been quietly changing lives.

    It’s a place many never imagined they’d need, but it quickly became a lifeline. 

    At the center of it all is Julissa Rios. 

    “They told me, ‘I have cancer, what do I do? ‘” Rios said. “What is next? “

    Those are the questions she would hear as a case manager at West Side Community Health Services. So, she created the support group La Nueva Esperanza — the New Hope 

    Once a month for the last two decades, Rios has seen the circle get bigger and bigger as people looked for a safe space. This small room has become a soft landing for people during their hardest days.

    “Every time I come here, it’s like injecting life into you,” Evelyn Quintro said.

    Quintro first found the group in the ’90s after a leukemia diagnosis. In 2012, she faced uterine cancer and again in 2022, doctors told her she had breast cancer.

    Three diagnoses, three tough battles and each time she found peace within the support group. 

    “Whoever is in this position, we feel the same thing, we know it is hard,” Quintro said. “If we fight enough, we can win.”

    Though every story is different and every journey is hard, everyone shows up, using love as medicine.

    Cancer may have brought them together, but hope and family keep them coming back.

    Ubah Ali

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  • Nationwide ban on toxic chemical TCE in place, 5 years after Minnesota became first state to outlaw it

    The nationwide ban on a toxic cancer-causing chemical, once on hold, has moved forward to protect people around the country. Minnesota paved the way for the ban on TCE.

    WCCO first told you about the dangers of TCE nearly six years ago. That’s when the White Bear Township community learned a manufacturing plant emitted unsafe levels of the chemical into the air.

    The pollution went on for more than 15 years, exposing people who lived nearby.

    Sheri Smith and Leigh Thiel are two of the founders of the Neighborhood Concerned Citizens Group in White Bear Township.

    “It is a horrid, carcinogenic, toxic chemical that should have been outlawed a long time ago,” Smith said.

    The group formed after learning about the now-defunct Water Gremlin — a manufacturing plant in their neighborhood — which emitted elevated and unsafe levels of TCE into the air for more than 15 years.  

    “For me, it started really at the hands of a really bad actor. When you look at what Water Gremlin did, and the amount of TCE that they emitted into the air, into our community, for the amount of time that they did, it was horrific,” Thiel said.

    Their group led the charge to ban the cancer-causing chemical in the state. People living with cancer and chronic illness joined them, vocalizing the dangers of TCE, and they worked with lawmakers to get the job done

    In 2020, Minnesota legislators voted to pass the ban on TCE. The governor signed it into law, making Minnesota the first state to enact a ban on the chemical often used as a degreaser.

    Earlier this year, former Rep. Ami Wazlawik shared how the work done here created momentum for a federal ban.

    “We knew what the conversation was around the chemical. We had done that work in Minnesota, and it was nice to see a reflection, sort of like the work that we started here in Minnesota, on the federal level, where it can be a lot more of an onerous process to get something done with chemical regulation. It was nice to sort of see our effort as a starting point for the efforts on the federal level to get us to where the EPA said, you know, we want to do this on the federal level and make sure everyone’s protected,” Wazlawik said.

    The Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule to manage the risks of TCE and to protect public health in late 2024. It was paused at the beginning of the year to go through a review with the new administration. Now it’s on track — banned in most uses across the country — with dates set to phase out its use. The EPA says a limited number of uses will be phased out over a longer period. 

    “Across the United States, there’s so many different communities that have been impacted by the use of TCE. So many different stories, so many horrific stories, and to know that that chapter can start to come to a close is really good,” Thiel said.

    “Bravo that we were the first, and the rest of the nation is following,” Smith said.

    The EPA told WCCO everything in the rule is now in effect, with the exception of one area. Compliance dates have been extended for the use of TCE, aiding in the manufacturing of nuclear fuel.  Companies are expected to have until 2028 to comply. 

    Jennifer Mayerle

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  • Barry Manilow reveals ‘cancerous spot’ found on his lung – National | Globalnews.ca

    Barry Manilow revealed that he is recovering after catching a “cancerous spot” on his lung.

    The 82-year-old singer shared a statement to Instagram on Monday, announcing that he will have to postpone his current farewell tour.

    The Copacabana singer said that he will need to take a break because he will need to undergo surgery to remove the “cancerous spot.”

    “We just finished five great Christmas concerts at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert. This marks the seventh time we have done these charity concerts and raised millions for nonprofit organizations throughout the Coachella Valley,” he began. “Thanks to everyone who bought tickets and celebrated these wonderful charities.

    “As many of you know I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks. Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK.”

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    The Mandy singer said that the MRI discovered the cancerous spot on his left lung and shared that the spot “needs to be removed.”

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    “It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early. That’s the good news. The bad news is that now that the Christmas A Gift of Love concerts are over I’m going into surgery to have the spot removed. The doctors do not believe it has spread and I’m taking tests to confirm their diagnosis,” he wrote.

    “So that’s it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and I Love Lucy reruns,” Manilow said in his health update. “The only follow-up is a month to recover and that means we have to reschedule the January arena concerts.”

    “I’m very sorry that you have to change your plans,” he added. “Just like you, we were all looking forward to the January shows and hate having to move everything around.”

    Manilow said he will be returning to Westgate Las Vegas for his Valentine’s weekend concerts on Feb. 12, 13 and 14 and throughout 2026.

    “I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. And remember, if you have even the slightest symptom… get tested!” he concluded his post.

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    Manilow shared the rescheduled dates for his tour, which include shows in Charleston, Orlando, Tampa and others.


    Click to play video: 'Grammy-winning singer D’Angelo dies after pancreatic cancer battle'


    Grammy-winning singer D’Angelo dies after pancreatic cancer battle



    © 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

    Katie Scott

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  • ‘I don’t know how to break the news’: They were planning a spring wedding. Then the doctor said something that changed everything

    A Pennsylvania woman goes viral for her November wedding photos. However, she shares how devastating news about her fiancé’s health led the couple to celebrate months earlier than their planned spring 2026 wedding.

    In a video with over 4.3 million views, TikToker Grace (@dacedenn) acknowledges many “older women” in the comments of her wedding photos, which she posted throughout December following her November ceremony.

    “I don’t know how to break the news. They had such sweet comments,” she says. “But I am so sorry to say that, unfortunately, Evan died on Tuesday.”

    The couple’s last-minute wedding reschedule

    Grace consistently posted her and her fiancé’s journey following his glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, diagnosis in 2022. According to the Glioblastoma Research Organization, the five-year survival rate for the disease is just 6.8 percent.

    Viewers praised the couple for their sense of humor and for sharing a candid look into life as an engaged couple navigating a serious diagnosis. The couple also advocated for further research into glioblastoma.

    In a prior post, Grace shared that the couple initially planned to hold their wedding in May 2026, but moved up the ceremony at the suggestion of Evan’s healthcare team.

    Grace writes that she had only 3 months to plan for their new wedding date, joking about the ordeal: “Luckily, I’m a genius.”

    Other widows share their stories

    In the comments of Grace’s video, other young widows share their own stories of having a spouse with a terminal illness. Many offer encouragement to Grace, pushing back against comments that questioned her use of dark humor in the grieving process.

    “Some of these comments are wild. My husband died 33 hours after we got married in his ICU room. If I didn’t make jokes, I’d never get through it in one piece. I’m sorry for your loss. You two looked very happy together,” one offers.

    Another shares, “My husband died 8 weeks after our wedding. Your emotions are all over the place. I laughed, changing my last name at the dmv. it was 3 dollars for the driving test. I laughed hysterically for 10 minutes over that 3-dollar charge.”

    “Folks who have never experienced a loss like the loss of a partner will never understand. Go ahead and laugh. Sometimes you have to. It’s been 3 years for me, dark humor has gotten me this far,” a third writes.

    “Dark humor is how I’ve survived! I’m so sorry for such a huge loss!” another viewer comments.

    @dacedenn

    sorry to the fans

    ♬ original sound – grace

    How to break the news about a date change

    While there’s no right way to handle a change of wedding plans due to a serious health issue, brides on Reddit share how they approached similar situations.

    One bride, whose fiancé was diagnosed with lung cancer, asks others for advice on informing guests about rescheduling in the subreddit r/weddingplanning.

    “Some good friends of mine changed their wedding date due to some family circumstances that they wanted to keep private. We received a ‘Changed the date!’ in the mail—thought it was a cute play on words!” one suggests.

    Another tells brides to lean into their humor and genuine feelings, writing, “My husband is 33, and they found a cancerous tumor in his bladder 3 months before our wedding. ‘We’re both pretty f— up about this’ really resonated with me lol.”

    The Mary Sue reached out to Grace via TikTok direct message for further comment.

    Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

    Image of Rebekah Harding

    Rebekah Harding

    Rebekah Harding is a reporter and content strategist based in Philadelphia. You can contact her at rebekahjonesharding.com.

    Rebekah Harding

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  • Is Aflatoxin a Concern? | NutritionFacts.org

    Is “toxic mold syndrome” a real thing? What do we do about toxic mold contamination of food?

    In recent years, mold has been blamed for all sorts of “vague and subjective” symptoms, but we have little scientific evidence that mold should be implicated. However, this “concept of toxic mold syndrome has permeated the public consciousness,” perpetuated by disreputable predatory practices of those making money testing homes for mold spores or testing people’s urine or blood. But all these tests are said to “further propagate misinformation and inflict unnecessary and often exorbitant costs on patients desperate for a clinical diagnosis, right or wrong, for their constellation of maladies…The continued belief in this myth is perpetuated by those charlatans who believe that measles vaccines cause autism, that homeopathy works, that fluoride in the water should be removed….”

    Mold toxin contamination of food, however, has emerged as a legitimate issue of serious concern, and mycotoxins are perhaps even more important than other contaminants that might make their way into the food supply. Hundreds of different types have been identified, but only one has been classified as a known human carcinogen, and that’s aflatoxin. The ochratoxin I’ve previously discussed is a possible human carcinogen, but we know aflatoxin causes cancer in human beings. In fact, aflatoxins are amongst the most powerful known carcinogens.

    It has been estimated that about a fifth of all liver cancer cases may be attributable to aflatoxins. “Since liver cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, and mortality rapidly follows diagnosis, the contribution of aflatoxins to this deadly cancer is significant.” And once aflatoxin makes it into the food, there is almost nothing we can do to remove it. Cooking, for example, doesn’t help. Indeed, as shown below and at 1:50 in my video Should We Be Concerned About Aflatoxin?, once it makes it into crops or into the meat, dairy, and eggs from animals consuming those crops, it’s too late. So, we have to prevent contamination in the first place, which is what we’ve been doing for decades in the United States. Because of government regulations, “companies in developed countries…are ‘always sampling’ for aflatoxin,” resulting in nearly $1 billion in losses every year. That may get even worse if climate change exacerbates aflatoxin contamination in the Midwest Corn Belt.

    So, on a consumer level, it is more of a public health problem in the less industrialized world, such as in African countries, where conditions are ripe and farmers can’t afford to throw away $1 billion in contaminated crops. Aflatoxin remains a public health threat in Africa, Southeast Asia, and rural China, affecting more than half of humanity. This explains why the prevalence of liver cancer in those areas may be 30 times higher, yet it is not a major problem in the United States or Europe.

    Only about 1% of Americans have detectable levels of aflatoxins in their bloodstream. Why not 0%? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration works to ensure that levels of exposure to these toxins are kept as low as practical, not as low as possible. In California, for instance, there has been an increase in “unacceptable aflatoxin levels” in pistachios, almonds, and figs. Unacceptable in Europe, that is, so it affects our ability to export, but not necessarily unacceptable for U.S. consumers, as we allow twice as much aflatoxin contamination.

    Figs are unique since they’re “allowed to fully ripen and semidry on the tree.” This makes them “particularly susceptible to aflatoxin production.” It would be interesting to know about the fig-consuming habits of the 1% of Americans who were positive for the toxin. If figs were to blame, I’d encourage people to diversify their dried fruit consumption, but nuts are so good for us that we really want to keep them in our diets. The cardiovascular health benefits we get from nuts outweigh their carcinogenic effects; nut consumption prevents thousands of strokes and heart attacks for every one case of liver cancer. “Thus, the population health benefits provided by increased nut consumption clearly outweigh the risks associated with increased aflatoxin B1 exposure.”

    So, we’re left with aflatoxin being mostly a problem in the developing world, and, because of that, it “remains a largely and rather shamefully ignored global health issue….” Where attention has been paid, it has been largely driven by the need to meet stringent import regulations on mycotoxin contamination in the richer nations of the world, rather than to protect the billions of people exposed on a daily basis.

    Doctor’s Note

    This is the last video in a four-part series on mold toxins. If you missed the others, check the related posts below. 

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • ‘Buck Rogers’ star Gil Gerard dead at 82

    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    Gil Gerard, best known for starring in “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,” has died. He was 82. 

    Gerard’s manager, Tina Presley Borek, confirmed the Hollywood actor’s death to Fox News Digital. 

    He died Tuesday in hospice care as a result of a rare, aggressive form of cancer, according to The Associated Press.

    TERENCE STAMP, GENERAL ZOD IN ‘SUPERMAN’ AND ‘BILLY BUDD,’ DEAD AT 87

    Gil Gerard died Tuesday after a battle with cancer. (Walt Disney Television Photo Archives/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images)

    Following his death, Gerard’s wife, Janet, shared a message he left behind for fans on Facebook, offering a final reflection on his life and outlook.

    “Don’t waste your time on anything that doesn’t thrill you or bring you love. See you out somewhere in the cosmos,” the note said.

    In another message written before his death, Gerard reflected on his life and career.

    “My life has been an amazing journey,” he wrote. “The opportunities I’ve had, the people I’ve met and the love I have given and received have made my 82 years on the planet deeply satisfying.”

    His death marks the passing of one of late 1970s television’s most recognizable sci-fi leads.

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    Gil Gerard 2

    Gil Gerard was best known for starring in “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.” (Herb Ball/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

    Gerard played William “Buck” Rogers from 1979 to 1981, helping turn the character into a primetime favorite. 

    The series, which ran for two seasons, followed a 20th-century NASA pilot who awakens 500 years in the future after being trapped in frozen animation when his spacecraft is struck by a meteor storm.

    TRISTAN ROGERS, LONGTIME ‘GENERAL HOSPITAL’ STAR AND SOAP OPERA VETERAN, DEAD AT 79

    The role came at a moment when space adventures were popular among audiences after “Star Wars,” and Gerard’s charismatic, clean-cut presence made him an instant TV star. Alongside him were Erin Gray as Wilma Deering and the wisecracking robot Twiki as Rogers navigated a domed, futuristic Earth filled with alien threats and the menacing Draconians.

    The series was based on Philip Francis Nowlan’s 1928 book “Armageddon 2419 A.D.” The character, originally named Anthony Rogers, later became known as Buck Rogers as the story evolved through comic strips, radio, film serials and television adaptations.

    Gerard, a Little Rock, Arkansas, native, worked steadily in television commercials before landing his breakout role. He went on to appear in numerous TV shows and movies, including starring roles in 1982’s “Hear No Evil” and the series “Sidekicks” in 1986.

    Gil Gerard 3

    The Little Rock, Ark., native worked steadily in television commercials before landing his breakout role. (Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images)

    In 1992, he hosted the reality series “Code 3,” which followed firefighters responding to emergency calls across the country. Throughout the 1990s, he made frequent guest appearances on television, including a role on “Days of Our Lives.”

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    Gerard later reunited with Gray for the 2007 TV film “Nuclear Hurricane,” and the two returned once more to the Buck Rogers universe in 2009, portraying Rogers’ parents in the pilot episode of James Cawley’s internet series “Buck Rogers Begins.”

    Gil Gerard, Connie Sellecca

    Gil Gerard had one son, actor Gilbert Vincent Gerard, with model and actress Connie Sellecca. (Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)

    Gerard was married and divorced four times before marrying wife Janet. He had one son, actor Gilbert Vincent Gerard, with model and actress Connie Sellecca. Their divorce included a contentious custody battle over their son, born in 1981, with Sellecca ultimately granted main custody.

    CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

    In his final message shared publicly, Gerard summed up his life with gratitude and grace.

    “My journey has taken me from Arkansas to New York to Los Angeles, and finally, to my home in North Georgia with my amazing wife, Janet, of 18 years,” he wrote. “It’s been a great ride, but inevitably one that comes to a close as mine has.”

    The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

    Stephanie Giang-Paunon is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to stephanie.giang@fox.com and on Twitter: @SGiangPaunon.

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  • Are the Effects of Ochratoxin Concerning? | NutritionFacts.org

    The overall cost-benefit ratio for mycotoxins depends on which food is contaminated.

    Ochratoxin has been described as toxic to the immune system, developing fetus, kidneys, and nervous system, as well as being carcinogenic, but that is in animal studies. Ochratoxin “causes kidney toxicity in certain animal species, but there is little documented evidence of adverse effects in humans.” That’s why it’s only considered a possible human carcinogen.

    Big Ag assures that current ochratoxin levels are safe, even among those who eat a lot of contaminated foods. The worst-case scenario may be young children eating a lot of oat-based cereals, but, even then, “their lifetime cancer risk is negligible.” Individuals arguing against regulatory standards suggest we can eat more than 42 cups of oatmeal a day and not worry about it. Where do they get these kinds of estimates?

    They determine the so-called benchmark dose in animals—the dose of the toxin that gives a 10% increase in pathology—then, because one would want to err on the side of caution, divide that dose by 500 as a kind of safety fudge factor to develop the tolerable daily intake. For cancer risk, you can find the tumor dose—the dose that increases tumor incidence in lab animals by 5%—and extrapolate down to the ”negligible cancer risk intake,” effectively incorporating a 5,000-fold safety factor, as seen below and at 1:28 in my video Should We Be Concerned About the Effects of Ochratoxin?.

    It seems kind of arbitrary, right? But what else are you going to do? You can’t just intentionally feed people the stuff and see what happens—but people eat it regularly. Can we just follow people and their diets over time and see if those who eat more whole grains, like oats, for example, are more likely to have cancer or live shorter lives?

    What is the association between whole grain intake and all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality? Every additional ounce of whole grains eaten a day is associated with not only a lower risk for cancer mortality but also a lower risk of dying from all causes put together. Below and at 2:05 in my video are findings from all the big cancer studies. Every single one trended towards lower cancer risk.

    The bottom line is that you don’t find adverse effects confirmed in these population studies. This is not to say ochratoxin is necessarily harmless, but “any such risk does not outweigh the known benefits of wholegrain consumption.” In fact, healthy constituents of the whole grains themselves, like their antioxidants, may directly reduce the impacts of mycotoxins by protecting cells from damage. So, eating lots of fruits and vegetables may also help. Either way, “an overall healthy diet can play a significant role in mitigating the risk of contaminants in grain.”

    In summary, healthy foods like whole grains are good, but just not as good as they could be because of ochratoxin, whereas less healthful foods, like wine and pork, are worse because of the mycotoxin, as shown below and at 2:52 in my video. Ochratoxin was detected, for example, in 44% of tested pork.

    Doctor’s Note

    This is the third video in a four-part series on mold toxins. If you missed the first two, see Ochratoxin in Breakfast Cereals and Friday Favorites: Ochratoxin and Breakfast Cereals, Herbs, Spices, and Wine.

    Should We Be Concerned About Aflatoxin? is coming up next.

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Survivors face unique struggles after losing loved ones to suicide: ‘The pain gets softer’

    During Thanksgiving dinner in 2024 — just months after her long-term boyfriend died by suicide — Amanda Killam broke down sobbing, remembering how much he enjoyed the traditional feast and mourning that he wasn’t there to share it.

    This year, she cried the night before Thanksgiving, but was able to get a bit of enjoyment over dinner with family and friends. Instead of overwhelmingly painful, it was bittersweet, sharing a good meal and company while still wishing her partner were by her side.

    “It doesn’t get easier, but it gets softer. The pain gets softer,” said Killam, of Commerce City.

    While grieving a loved one is hard regardless of how they died, people who lost someone to suicide face unique challenges, dealing not only with sadness, but also with anger, feelings of abandonment, the sense of being blamed by others, or guilt that they didn’t know the deceased was suffering.

    Professional help and support from people who’ve been through the same thing can help work through those feelings and rebuild a life, survivors said.

    Killam’s partner, Rob Nickels, died by suicide at 42. She knew about his history of health problems, including a stroke in his 20s and two kidney transplants, but he never talked about the extent of his mental suffering.

    Nickels had texted about his intent to die while Killam was getting ready to fly home from Dallas. She called and attempted to talk him down, then notified friends and family in Denver to call 911 after hearing sounds suggesting he’d begun an attempt. She also called businesses near their apartment in the hope someone could get there fast enough to intervene.

    First responders attempted to resuscitate Nickels, but he died shortly before Killam’s plane landed in Denver. In the aftermath, functioning was nearly impossible. Sometimes she’d skip meals because the idea of choosing what to shop for and cook was overwhelming.

    “It was hard not to feel like a failure,” she said.

    Killam was skeptical of therapy in general, but said she started it shortly after Nickels’ death to work through the sadness, guilt and feeling of abandonment from losing her partner. It helped to have an outside perspective, because her family and friends, while supportive, didn’t know how to challenge her to change thought patterns that weren’t helping her, she said.

    Not everyone who is grieving needs professional help, but therapy can help if someone is struggling to manage the stressors of everyday life, can’t sleep or feels consistently isolated or empty, said Mandy Doria, a licensed professional counselor who specializes in traumatic loss at the Stress, Trauma, Adversity Research and Treatment Center on the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus.

    Any loss can be devastating, but when someone dies by suicide, the survivors may become hypervigilant, for fear that they miss a sign that someone else they love is struggling, she said.

    People can’t go back to the way life was before a major loss, so they have to think about what it would mean to rebuild, Doria said. Often, that involves doing something to remember and give meaning to the life the deceased led, such as continuing to make their favorite recipe or volunteering for a cause they cared about, she said.

    “When you lose someone to suicide, it can really shake your worldview and understanding of life,” she said. “Resilience is believing that it’s possible to bounce back and committing yourself every day to doing that.”

    Angela Rouse, of Thornton, lost her oldest son to suicide when he was 29 and facilitates a support group for survivors, called Heartbeat.

    Her son left behind five children, four of whom she and her husband are now raising. They had to process their own grief while helping their grandchildren through the mental health struggles that come from losing a parent early in life.

    “It was nonstop therapy for three years,” she said.

    Even seven years after the loss, it still can come up in unexpected ways, such as when she saw a friend’s daughter holding her sister’s baby — an experience her oldest son never got to have with his younger brother’s children.

    Her youngest grandson has been having a hard time coping with her recent breast cancer diagnosis because of the fear of losing another central figure in his life.

    “I’m the only parent, mom figure he’s had,” she said.

    People who are grieving also experience the secondary losses of people they thought would be with them through the worst times, who ultimately don’t always come through, Rouse said. And it can be hard to connect with people when your world is reeling, but they seem essentially fine, she said.

    “My circle got a lot smaller, that’s for sure,” she said.

    Amanda Killam and Rob Nickels. Nickels died by suicide in 2024 at age 42, and Killam struggled to make sense of the loss and move forward. (Photo courtesy of Amanda Killam)

    Meg Wingerter

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