Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of Oct. 9, 2023

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Oct. 9, 2023–Oct. 13, 2023.

The New York Times (10/12, Blum) reports, “Women between the ages of 35 and 54 are being diagnosed with lung cancer at higher rates than men in that same age group, according to a report published Thursday by researchers at the American Cancer Society.” However, that “disparity is small – one or two more cases among every 100,000 women in that age range than among men.” The Times says, “Researchers are trying to make sense of why lung cancer rates are higher among younger women, as well as the best way to help patients. But there aren’t definitive answers.”

MedPage Today (10/12, Bassett) says the findings published in JAMA Oncology “showed that while lung cancer incidence rates are continuing to decline in the U.S., the higher rates previously observed in women versus men have not only persisted in those younger than 50, but now extend to women ages 50 to 54.”

Multiple Sclerosis News Today (10/11, Maia) reports, “Socioeconomic factors, specifically income and education levels, and marital status, were identified as risk factors for multiple sclerosis (MS) severity,” a study found. Investigators “found that earning a higher income and having more years of education before being diagnosed with MS are associated with less severe disability and milder symptoms over the disease course.” Meanwhile, “people with relapsing MS who were divorced tended to have more severe disability and worse physical and psychological symptoms than did patients who were single.” The research was published in JAMA Network Open.

The American Journal of Managed Care (10/11, Munz) says, “The researchers’ findings indicate that a myriad of factors outside of treatment could contribute to MS severity. By taking these factors into account, clinicians may be better able to anticipate the course of a patient’s MS.”

CNN (10/10, Musa) reports, “The number of people who die from stroke worldwide will jump 50% by 2050 if no significant action is taken to limit the prevalence of stroke and its risk factors, according to a...report from the World Stroke Organization-Lancet Neurology Commission, a new group formed to forecast the condition’s epidemiological and economic impacts.” Currently, “stroke is the second leading cause of death around the world, according to the World Health Organization, causing 6.6 million deaths in 2020,” and that “number is expected to hit 9.7 million in 2050, according to the report.”

 According to NBC News (10/9, Carroll), “for the first time, the American Heart Association is identifying a new medical condition that reflects the strong links among obesity, diabetes and heart and kidney disease,” according to an advisory published online ahead of print in the journal Circulation, “the goal in recognizing the condition— cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, or CKM—is to get earlier diagnosis and treatment for people at high risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.”

NBC News (10/6, Carroll) reported, “The coronavirus isn’t the only pathogen that can cause symptoms that last months, or even years, after an initial infection is overcome, a...study published Friday in The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine suggests.” According to “an analysis of data from 10,171 U.K. adults, the researchers found evidence of a ‘long cold’ syndrome that can follow infection with a variety of common respiratory viruses, including common cold viruses and influenza.” Although “some of the symptoms of long COVID and long colds overlapped, the study noted that people with long COVID were more likely to continue to experience lightheadedness, dizziness and problems with taste and smell; lingering long cold symptoms were more likely to include coughing, stomach pain and diarrhea.”

The Hill (10/6, Robertson) reported, “‘Long cold’ symptoms could linger for up to four weeks in some cases, much like ‘long COVID,’ the U.K.-based researchers said.” Furthermore, “long-term symptoms were more likely to occur with more severe illnesses, the researchers said.”

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