Ozempic may put cancer patients at risk, render chemo, immunotherapy useless

 Game-changing weight loss jabs relied on by millions of slimmers and diabetics could cause breast cancer treatments to stop working, experts have warned.

The drugs, which include Ozempic and Wegovy, have ushered in a new era in the battle against obesity, helping dieters shed up to a fifth of their bodyweight. 

But, American doctors tracking women being treated for an aggressive form of breast cancer have discovered the injections 'detrimentally affect' how the body responds to chemotherapy and immunotherapy. 

It meant that patients on the jabs — collectively known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1s — were less likely to be totally clear of cancer after treatment and more at risk of tumours returning. 

British consultant clinical oncologist Dr John Glees said the findings were 'unsettling' and added: 'These weight loss drugs are relatively new, so it's very concerning that patients taking them were less likely to be cancer free after treatment.' 

In the study, hundreds of women with early-stage triple negative breast cancer were followed throughout and after treatment. 

A few dozen were already taking GLP-1s and continued to do so while having cancer treatment. 

Tests two years later showed just 28 per cent of women on GLP-1s responded fully to the cancer therapies, and were clear of cancer. 

More than twice as many — 63 per cent — of those not on GLP-1s were cancer free. 

Dr Bethania Santos, an oncologist and researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who presented the study at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, said: 'Use of GLP-1 use may need to be carefully considered during breast cancer therapy.' 

The researchers also discovered GLP-1s had infiltrated tumour cells and immune cells in samples taken from the patients. 

Although what this meant wasn't yet fully understood, Dr Santos suggested that it may make tumour cells more resistant to standard treatments. 

Dr Glees also told MailOnline: 'We know that obesity increases the risk of cancer, and so drugs like Ozempic, which help people lose weight, could also reduce that risk.

'The jabs also seem to protect the heart and possibly the brain.

'But we need to think very carefully about these new data and carry out more research. 

'It's important patients do not panic but, likewise, it's vital women tell their cancer specialist if they are on one of these GLP-1 drugs while undergoing cancer treatment.'

Other experts today also called on weight loss jab users not to continue taking them during cancer treatment and wait until 'more definitive data' on the topic. 

Professor Neil Lyengar, an oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York told MailOnline: 'The patients that were prescribed weight loss drugs in this study were already on several other diabetes medications.

'This suggests that these patients had advanced or difficult to control diabetes. 

'My interpretation of this data is not that the weight loss drugs decrease the effectiveness of chemotherapy, but rather that people who have advanced diabetes requiring multiple medications are at increased risk for breast cancer recurrence. 

'This study does not answer the question of whether weight loss drugs help or hurt the effectiveness of cancer therapy.'

He added: 'Given the negative impact of obesity on cancer survival, I support the use of weight loss drugs after cancer therapy is completed. 

'However, I do not currently recommend the use of weight loss drugs during cancer therapy until we have more definitive data. 

But, these decisions are very complex and different for every individual.' 

Ozempic, Wegovy and a similar drug Mounjaro are self-administered weekly. 

Limited studies have suggested weight loss jabs may be helpful in reducing risk of breast and other cancers.

One in seven women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime — around 56,000 a year — making it the most common cancer in the UK. 

The figure stands at roughly 300,000 annually in the US. Around 85 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer survive more than five years.

However, triple negative breast cancer — which accounts for around 15 per cent of all breast cancers in the UK and US — is far more difficult. 

Typically, it grows and spreads faster than other breast cancer types and has fewer treatment options. 

It is also more challenging to treat because it doesn’t have receptors for hormones such as oestrogen — for which there are targeted therapies. 

On average around 77 per cent of women with triple negative breast cancer will survive their cancer for five years or more after they are diagnosed, but depending on the stage this can fall as low as 12 per cent.  

Breast cancer specialist and author Dr Liz O'Riordan told MailOnline: 'This is an important study, and more research is needed. 

'It seems that GLP-1s can make cancer cells less responsive to chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

'This will mean their cancers are much more likely to return.  

'On the other hand, we think giving GLP-1s to women after they have finished cancer treatment, to keep their weight down, may reduce the likelihood of cancer recurrance.

'We need to think more about how these patients are managed, and more research to understand what's going on.' 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14182453/Warning-experts-discover-weight-loss-jabs-like-Ozempic-render-breast-cancer-chemo-ineffective.html

Black women lead criticism against Biden over pardons

 President Biden is facing growing criticism from civil rights and criminal justice reform activists after pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, while many Black Americans continue serving time in federal facilities for nonviolent crimes.  

President Biden has pardoned 26 people while in office, including his son. The number is significantly less than President-elect Trump’s 144 pardons during his first term. For some activists, the number is woefully small.  

Activist Angela Rye said Biden has a responsibility to Black Americans after they helped him win the White House in 2020.  

“When you consider the many ways in which Black women — Black people — carried him across the finish line, risked their very lives with the pandemic and after George Floyd’s horrible, tragic murder on camera for nine minutes and 30 seconds, he owes Black people their freedom because people trusted that he would deliver,” Rye told The Hill. 

A pardon restores civil liberties and helps assuage the stigma around a federal conviction, though it doesn’t erase the crime from the record or necessarily signify innocence.  

The moves can stoke controversy, as they’re often issued when presidents are on their way out the door. Biden’s late-game decision to offer Hunter Biden a full and unconditional pardon rattled Washington after he repeatedly said he would not issue a pardon for his son.  

Progressive voices on Capitol Hill are now demanding President Biden forgive nonviolent offenders and inmates facing the death penalty. 

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) issued a call to action this week, with an emphasis on the racial disparities in the justice system. Others, like outgoing Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), criticized Biden for failing to uphold campaign promises to reduce the number of incarcerated Americans.  

“Despite pledges by the president to reduce the federal prison population, it has only grown in recent years,” Bush said at a press conference on Tuesday.  

“President Biden has an opportunity and an obligation to reduce the federal prison population and make good on his campaign promise to address the systemic injustices of mass incarceration before leaving office. With the stroke of a pen, the president can offer these individuals the dignity and redemption they deserve. We urge him to act now.”

Black Americans make up around 14 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but 39 percent of people incarcerated, per the Bureau of Prisons. 

Research has also long shown Black Americans disproportionately face more severe sentencing compared to their white counterparts. A five-year analysis from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, released last year, found that Black men received sentences roughly 13 percent longer than white men, and Black men and women were both less likely than white Americans to receive probation. Hispanic Americans were similarly disproportionately affected. 

As of 2022, more than half of inmates serving life without parole were Black, according to data from the American Civil Liberties Union — as were 65 percent of those serving life for nonviolent offenses.  

Pressed about the disparities faced by Black men in light of the latest pardon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week that “there’s a process” and promised that more pardons are to come before Biden leaves office

“We’re trying to figure out the next steps in this, and you’ll hear from the president on this in the next couple of weeks,” Jean-Pierre said, pointing to Biden’s past pardons as a sign of commitment.  

Despite nearly 1,500 pardon requests so far, according to statistics from the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, Biden has “just not really met the moment yet on clemency,” said Daniel Landsman, vice president of policy at the Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation.  

This moment, Landsman added, “represents his last opportunity to really cement a legacy on criminal justice reform that he can point at and say, ‘here was my contribution to this field.’”

In the closing days of the Biden administration, there was always going to be a push for clemencies, Landsman said, but the Hunter Biden pardon “adds a new, interesting layer to the push.”  

“What we’re asking is, in essence, for him to extend the same emotions … coming into him as he looks at his son’s conviction and applying that to thousands of American families,” Landsman said.  

The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, which is running a petition asking Biden to commute unfair sentences before his term ends on Jan. 20, is “really optimistic and hopeful” that more clemencies will come down the pipeline before President Biden leaves office, said Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the center’s justice program.

Granting clemencies “is one of the most important efforts that this administration can do before President Trump takes office,” Eisen said. “And that’s because an executive order can be rescinded, but grants of clemency, pardon or commutations, can’t be.”  

Advocates for the incarcerated have expressed concern over the incoming Trump administration given its use of the death penalty.

In the final months of Trump’s first term, his administration executed 13 people, more than any administration in more than 120 years.

The Trump administration also amended the federal execution protocol, which opened the door to harsher methods of execution, including death by firing squad, electrocution and nitrogen hypoxia.   

During his 2020 campaign, President Biden said he opposed the death penalty and vowed to abolish the practice. Under his administration, the Justice Department halted federal executions but continued defending existing death sentences and seeking new ones.  

There are currently 40 Americans in federal death row, and Black Americans account for 40 percent of them. In general, Black defendants are more than four times more likely to be sentenced to death than non-Black defendants.  

“State-sanctioned murder is not justice, and President Biden has an opportunity and an obligation to save lives and make good on his campaign promise to address the federal death penalty before leaving office,” Pressley said at a press conference on Tuesday.  

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5035761-biden-criticism-civil-rights/

Watch live: Senate panel probes safety of US air traffic control

 The Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations and Innovation on Thursday morning is set to debate the safety of U.S. air traffic control.

The probe comes after a 114-page report, released earlier this year by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), found that exhaustion, burnout and an overall lack of sleep for controllers — particularly during evening shifts — has hindered safety and led to accidents.

In response, the FAA issued new guidance that requires air traffic controllers to take at least 12 hours off before midnight shifts and 10 hours off between shifts in general. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has also requested more funding from Congress to hire roughly 2,000 additional controllers.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. EST.

Watch the live video above.

https://thehill.com/video-clips/5036600-watch-live-senate-panel-probes-safety-air-traffic-control/

3 men accuse Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of drugging and raping them at NYC hotels

 Sean “Diddy” Combs drugged and then raped a three of men at two Manhattan hotels and at his Hamptons estate as recently as 2022, according to a trio of new lawsuit filed in New York on Thursday.

One of them men recalled during his drugged haze that once Combs was finished raping him, he then handed him off to others from Bad Boy Records so they could take turns sexually assaulting him, according to his lawsuit.

The three lawsuits cite assaults in 2019 and 2020 — though the suit alleges they covered allegations through 2022.

Each lawsuit alleges that Combs served the anonymous victims alcoholic drinks spiked with drugs which made the men feel “ill” and lose consciousness, only to awake as Combs was raping them, court documents state.

Sean “Diddy” Combs seen at a party in 2009.Ethan Miller

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One victim, who said he worked as a “errand boy” for Combs’ Bad Boy Records, alleged that the rapper told him to “stop” when he tried to resist after waking up during a February 2020 rape at the InterContinental New York Times Square hotel.

Combs allegedly also told him he was “almost done” at one point during the assault, the suit claims. and then said that he would “look like an idiot” if the accuser ever tried to go to the police.

Another victim alleged that when he was drugged and raped in 2019 at an exclusive afterparty at the Park Hyatt hotel, he had a “brief moment of consciousness” where he saw “a man and a woman sitting on the bed recording the rape on a camera,” his suit claims.

When he awoke, the victim claims that a mysterious man in the hotel room handed him roughly $2,500 in cash, telling him it was from Combs, who has already left.

During the summer of 2020, the third victim — a Florida man — was invited to a party at Combs’ Hamptons estate.

After flying to New York, the victim claims that associates from Bad Boy Records picked him up from his Manhattan Hotel and drove him to East Hampton, where he later fell ill and lost consciousness after drinking at the party.

The suit states that “his drink had been drugged by Defendant Sean Combs.”

The Park Hyatt New York in ManhattanG.N.Miller/NYPost

During the evening, the suit claims that Combs and associates from Bad Boy Records took turns raping him. The next morning, he awoke “surrounded by Defendant Sean Combs’ associates from Bad Boy Records,” and felt “severe pain in his anus.”

All three victims said they filed anonymously because they had been threatened by Combs previously.

In a statement to The Post, Combs’ attorneys said “these complaints are full of lies. We will prove them false and seek sanctions against every unethical lawyer who filed fictional claims against him.”

https://nypost.com/2024/12/12/entertainment/3-men-accuse-diddy-of-drugging-and-raping-them-at-nyc-hotels/