New study on disparities in COVID-19 clinical trials, how microbes help cancer, research updates
Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news.
COVID-19 and clinical trials
Fred Hutch leads large-scale review of COVID-19 clinical trials that highlights multiple disparities: Women were underrepresented in COVID-19 treatment clinical trials, and some racial and ethnic groups were underrepresented in COVID-19 prevention trials, according to a new meta-analysis conducted by Fred Hutch in collaboration with researchers from Beijing and London. The study, published Dec. 5 in JAMA Internal Medicine, identified system-wide differences in representation among several key demographic groups in COVID-19 prevention and treatment trials in the U.S.
Cancer research
How bacteria give cancer a helping hand: Two new studies from investigators at Fred Hutch reveal how bacteria infiltrate tumors and how they could be helping tumors progress and spread. The team also showed that the different microbial players in a tumor’s microbiota (the full collection of microbes it carries) could influence how a cancer responds to treatment. The two papers, one published in Cell Reports and the other published in Nature, focus on an oral bacterium called Fusobacterium nucleatum, which has been linked to colorectal cancer.
