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In Turkey, Darwin is being removed from textbooks
Some parts of the world are going backward right now. Where will it leave us?
A copy of Darwin's "Origin of Species" in front of a stone bust of Charles Darwin at London's Natural History Museum. Soon, references to the pioneering biologist and his theory of evolution will be removed from Turkish textbooks (SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Im
Science education is being attacked in several countries at the same time, including right here in the good ol' U. S. of A.
The latest? The country of Turkey has banned the teaching of evolution and even the mention of natural selection and Charles Darwin from the biology textbooks of secondary school children. The law was passed to make such changes soon after an attempted political coup in 2016. Since that move, the country's government has moved toward a much more authoritarian model—one that regards religious fundamentalism above science and schools. Erdogan's government is also creating a massive refugee crisis as those who do not wish to live under sharia law escape the country, mainly to Greece.
The move to the hard right has even included armed vehicles entering University property to round people up, the raiding of libraries on campuses, and more. Terrifying times, indeed.
Anti-riot police stand guard in front of a fence set at the entrance to Istiklal Street to prevent Saturday Mothers' gathering, on September 1, 2018 in Istanbul. The Saturday Mothers are a group protesting the "disappearances" of Turkish citizens held in state and paramilitary custody (Photo credit YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images).
This has been accompanied by a sharp rise in the number of religious schools across the country—at least a 10-fold increase since 2002—many of which are located where there simply are no other schools available, so students have no choice.
In a New Scientist op-ed, journalist Rachel Jolley lays it out quite plainly:
"These trends are part of a shift by the current Turkish government away from the fact-based education and society envisaged and introduced by Turkey’s moderniser and first president Kemal Atatürk in the 1920s and 30s. Index, a global publishing and campaigning organisation on free expression, has also charted the pressures Turkish academics are under in its Turkey Uncensored project."
What does kindness look like? It wears a mask.
Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling has an important favor to ask of the American people.
16 October, 2020
Sponsored by Northwell Health
- Michael Dowling is president and CEO of Northwell Health, the largest health care system in New York state. In this PSA, speaking as someone whose company has seen more COVID-19 patients than any other in the country, Dowling implores Americans to wear masks—not only for their own health, but for the health of those around them.
- The CDC reports that there have been close to 7.9 million cases of coronavirus reported in the United States since January. Around 216,000 people have died from the virus so far with hundreds more added to the tally every day. Several labs around the world are working on solutions, but there is currently no vaccine for COVID-19.
- The most basic thing that everyone can do to help slow the spread is to practice social distancing, wash your hands, and to wear a mask. The CDC recommends that everyone ages two and up wear a mask that is two or more layers of material and that covers the nose, mouth, and chin. Gaiters and face shields have been shown to be less effective at blocking droplets. Homemade face coverings are acceptable, but wearers should make sure they are constructed out of the proper materials and that they are washed between uses. Wearing a mask is the most important thing you can do to save lives in your community.
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Science confirms: Earth has more than one 'moon'
Two massive clouds of dust in orbit around the Earth have been discussed for years and finally proven to exist.
10 November, 2018
J. Sliz-Balogh, A. Barta and G. Horvath
Surprising Science
- Hungarian astronomers have proven the existence of two "pseudo-satellites" in orbit around the earth.
- These dust clouds were first discovered in the sixties, but are so difficult to spot that scientists have debated their existence since then.
- The findings may be used to decide where to put satellites in the future and will have to be considered when interplanetary space missions are undertaken.
After more than fifty years of stargazing, debate, and controversy, scientists have confirmed the existence of two "moons" or "pseudo-satellites" made of dust orbiting the Earth. Though the clever use of mathematics, they also argue that the location of these dust clouds gives them some unique characteristics.
What are they?
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgyMDA0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTM1ODc0Mn0.NH33LuauIo__sUBi4tvhwxDcsvhflDFD-Nhx9FjlSNk/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=148%2C0%2C149%2C0&height=700" id="cec96" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="acb78abe2ab46a17e419ad30906751d6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Artist's impression of the Kordylewski cloud in the night sky (with its brightness greatly enhanced) at the time of the observations.
G. Horváth
<p>The<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kordylewski_cloud" target="_blank"> Kordylewski clouds</a> are two dust clouds first observed by Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in 1961. They are situated at two of the <a href="https://www.space.com/30302-lagrange-points.html" target="_blank">Lagrange points</a> in Earth's orbit. These points are locations where the gravity of two objects, such as the Earth and the Moon or a planet and the Sun, equals the centripetal required to orbit the objects while staying in the same relative position. There are five of these spots between the Earth and Moon. The clouds rest at what are called points four and five, forming a triangle with the clouds and the Earth at the three corners.</p><p>The clouds are enormous, taking up the same space in the night sky as twenty lunar discs; covering an area of 45,000 miles. They are roughly 250,000 miles away, about the same distance from us as the Moon. They are entirely comprised of specks of dust which reflect the light of the sun so faintly most astronomers that looked for them were unable to see them at all. </p><p>The clouds themselves are probably ancient, but the model that the scientists created to learn about them suggests that the individual dust particles that comprise them can be blown away by solar wind and replaced by the dust from other cosmic sources like comet tails. This means that the clouds hardly move but are <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/11/news-earth-moon-dust-clouds-satellites-planets-space/" target="_blank">eternally changing</a>. </p>How did they discover this?
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgyMDAzNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1Nzc4MjQ4MX0.7uU9OqmQcWw5Ll1UXAav0PCu4nTg-GdJdAWADHanC7c/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C180%2C0%2C181&height=700" id="952fb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a778280a20f1c54cd2c14c8313224be2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />"In this picture the central region of the Kordylewski dust cloud is visible (bright red pixels). The straight tilted lines are traces of satellites."
J. Slíz-Balogh
<p>In their study published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras" target="_blank">Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</a>, Hungarian astronomers Judit Slíz-Balogh, András Barta, and Gábor Horváth described how they were able to find the dust clouds using polarized lenses.</p><p>Since the clouds were expected to polarize the light that bounces off of them, by configuring the telescopes to look for this kind of light the clouds were much easier to spot. What the scientists observed, polarized light in patterns that extended outside the view of the telescope lens, was in line with the predictions of their mathematical model and ruled out other possible sources. </p>Why are we just learning this now?
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgyMDAzOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjUyNDMyMH0.Zl8GmQ_rJHiL4b7hN0r_YBmgb6_ZqIRvqOVuko2ubpw/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C141%2C0%2C185&height=700" id="87afe" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dd4c0b5088e601d7279cc5eb226f8b7b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />"Mosaic pattern of the angle of polarization around the L5 point (white dot) of the Earth-Moon system. The five rectangular windows correspond to the imaging telescope with which the patterns of the Kordylewski cloud were measured."
J. Slíz-Balogh
<p>The objects, being dust clouds, are very faint and hard to see. While Kordylewski observed them in 1961, other astronomers have looked there and given mixed reports over the following decades. This discouraged many astronomers from joining the search, as study co-author Judit Slíz-Balogh <a href="https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/earths-dust-cloud-satellites-confirmed" target="_blank">explained</a>, <em>"The Kordylewski clouds are two of the toughest objects to find, and though they are as close to Earth as the Moon are largely overlooked by researchers in astronomy. It is intriguing to confirm that our planet has dusty pseudo-satellites in orbit alongside our lunar neighbor."</em></p>Will this have any impact on space travel?
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c3d797fff5430c64afcb5a49bddc3616"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ou8N3v9SFPE?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Lagrange points have been put forward as excellent locations for a space station or satellites like the <a href="https://jwst.nasa.gov/about.html" target="_blank">James Webb Telescope</a> to be put into orbit, as they would require little fuel to stay in place. Knowing about a massive dust cloud that could damage sensitive equipment already being there could save money and lives in the future. While we only know about the clouds at Lagrange points four and five right now, the study's authors suggest there could be more at the other points.</p><p>While the discovery of a couple of dust clouds might not seem all that impressive, it is the result of a half-century of astronomical and mathematical work and reminds us that wonders are still hidden in our cosmic backyard. While you might never need to worry about these clouds again, there is nothing wrong with looking at the sky with wonder at the strange and fantastic things we can discover. </p>
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How do pandemics end? History suggests diseases fade but are almost never truly gone
Instead of looking forward, we should be consulting the past.
21 October, 2020
Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Coronavirus
When will the pandemic end? All these months in, with over 37 million COVID-19 cases and more than 1 million deaths globally, you may be wondering, with increasing exasperation, how long this will continue.
<p>Since the beginning of the pandemic, epidemiologists and public health specialists have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0883-7">been using</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.6585" target="_blank">mathematical</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2006520117" target="_blank">models</a> to forecast the future in an effort to curb the coronvirus's spread. But infectious disease modeling is tricky. Epidemiologists warn that “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01003-6" target="_blank">[m]odels are not crystal balls</a>," and even sophisticated versions, like those that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.19.20177493" target="_blank">combine forecasts</a> or <a href="https://covid19-projections.com/" target="_blank">use machine learning</a>, can't necessarily reveal when the pandemic will end or <a href="https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america?view=total-deaths&tab=trend" target="_blank">how many people will die</a>.</p><p>As a <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/history/our_people/directory/nukhet.php" target="_blank">historian who studies disease and public health</a>, I suggest that instead of looking forward for clues, you can look back to see what brought past outbreaks to a close – or didn't.</p>
<h2>Where we are now in the course of the pandemic</h2><p>In the early days of the pandemic, many people hoped the coronavirus would simply fade away. Some argued that it would <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/837348551/timeline-what-trump-has-said-and-done-about-the-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">disappear on its own</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-may-wane-this-summer-but-dont-count-on-any-seasonal-variation-to-end-the-pandemic-136218" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">with the summer heat</a>. Others claimed that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-herd-immunity-uk-boris-johnson/608065/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">herd immunity</a> would kick in once enough people had been infected. But none of that has happened.</p><p>A combination of public health efforts to contain and mitigate the pandemic – from rigorous testing and contact tracing to social distancing and wearing masks – <a href="https://www.endcoronavirus.org/countries" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">have been proven to help</a>. Given that the virus has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/14/which-countries-have-not-reported-any-coronavirus-cases/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spread almost everywhere in the world</a>, though, such measures alone can't bring the pandemic to an end. All eyes are now turned to <a href="https://time.com/5887199/coronavirus-vaccine-race/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">vaccine development</a>, which is being pursued at unprecedented speed.</p><p>Yet experts tell us that even with a successful vaccine and effective treatment, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/coronavirus-will-never-go-away/614860/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">COVID-19 may never go away</a>. Even if the pandemic is curbed in one part of the world, it will likely continue in other places, causing infections elsewhere. And even if it is no longer an immediate pandemic-level threat, the coronavirus will likely become endemic – meaning slow, sustained transmission will persist. The coronavirus will continue to cause smaller outbreaks, much like seasonal flu.</p><p>The history of pandemics is full of such frustrating examples.</p>
<h2>Once they emerge, diseases rarely leave</h2><p>Whether bacterial, viral or parasitic, virtually every disease pathogen that has affected people over the last several thousand years is still with us, because it is nearly impossible to fully eradicate them.</p><p>The only disease that has been <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eradicated through vaccination is smallpox</a>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-massive-public-health-effort-eradicated-smallpox-but-scientists-are-still-studying-the-deadly-virus-139468" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mass vaccination campaigns</a> led by the World Health Organization in the 1960s and 1970s were successful, and in 1980, smallpox was declared the first – and still, the only – human disease to be fully eradicated.</p><p>So success stories like smallpox are exceptional. It is rather the rule that diseases come to stay.</p><p>Take, for example, pathogens like <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100617120718.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">malaria</a>. Transmitted via parasite, it's almost as old as humanity and still exacts a heavy disease burden today: There were about <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">228 million malaria cases and 405,000 deaths</a> worldwide in 2018. Since 1955, global programs to eradicate malaria, assisted by the use of DDT and chloroquine, brought some success, but the disease is <a href="https://www.who.int/malaria/media/world-malaria-report-2018/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">still endemic in many countries of the Global South</a>.</p><p>Similarly, diseases such as <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tuberculosis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tuberculosis</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science/1109759" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">leprosy</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.368.6497.1324-o" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">measles</a> have been with us for several millennia. And despite all efforts, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/eradication-of-diseases" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">immediate eradication is still not in sight</a>.</p><p>Add to this mix relatively younger pathogens, such as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d42859-018-00008-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">HIV</a> and <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ebola virus</a>, along with <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/influenza-avian-and-other-zoonotic#tab=tab_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">influenza</a> and <a href="https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/coronaviruses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">coronaviruses</a> including <a href="https://www.who.int/ith/diseases/sars/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SARS</a>, <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/middle-east-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus-(mers-cov)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MERS</a> and <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/question-and-answers-hub/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19</a>, and the overall epidemiological picture becomes clear. Research on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012373944-5.00185-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">global burden of disease</a> finds that annual mortality caused by infectious diseases – most of which occurs in the developing world – is nearly one-third of all deaths globally.</p><p>Today, in an age of global air travel, climate change and ecological disturbances, we are constantly exposed to the threat of <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">emerging infectious diseases</a> while continuing to suffer from much older diseases that remain alive and well.</p><p>Once added to the repertoire of pathogens that affect human societies, most infectious diseases are here to stay.</p>
<h2>Plague caused past pandemics – and still pops up</h2><p>Even infections that now have effective vaccines and treatments continue to take lives. Perhaps no disease can help illustrate this point better than <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plague, the single most deadly</a> infectious disease in human history. Its name continues to be synonymous with horror even today.</p><p><a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/plague#tab=tab_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Plague</a> is caused by the bacterium <em>Yersinia pestis</em>. There have been countless local outbreaks and at least three documented plague pandemics over the last 5,000 years, killing hundreds of millions of people. The most notorious of all pandemics was <a href="https://www.livescience.com/what-was-the-black-death.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Black Death</a> of the mid-14th century.</p><p>Yet <a href="https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_globe/1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Black Death</a> was far from being an isolated outburst. Plague returned every decade or even more frequently, each time hitting already weakened societies and taking its toll during <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/npt.2020.27" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">at least six centuries</a>. Even before the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39097.611806.DB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sanitary revolution</a> of the 19th century, each outbreak gradually died down over the course of months and sometimes years as a result of changes in temperature, humidity and the availability of hosts, vectors and a sufficient number of susceptible individuals.</p><p>Some societies recovered relatively quickly from their losses caused by the Black Death. Others never did. For example, medieval <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/borbla" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Egypt could not fully recover</a> from the lingering effects of the pandemic, which particularly devastated its agricultural sector. The cumulative effects of declining populations became impossible to recoup. It led to the gradual decline of the Mamluk Sultanate and its conquest by the Ottomans within less than two centuries.</p><p>That very same state-wrecking plague bacterium remains with us <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/08/us/second-plague-death-new-mexico-man/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">even today</a>, a reminder of the very long persistence and resilience of pathogens.</p><p>Hopefully COVID-19 will not persist for millennia. But until there's a successful vaccine, and likely even after, no one is safe. Politics here are crucial: When vaccination programs are weakened, infections can come roaring back. Just look at <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/s0424-highest-measles-cases-since-elimination.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">measles</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/health/polio-pakistan-afghanistan.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">polio</a>, which resurge as soon as vaccination efforts falter.</p><p>Given such historical and contemporary precedents, humanity can only hope that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 will prove to be a tractable and eradicable pathogen. But the history of pandemics teaches us to expect otherwise.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146066/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation"></p><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nukhet-varlik-1155360" target="_blank">Nükhet Varlik</a>, Associate Professor of History, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-carolina-1755" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of South Carolina</a></em></p><p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-pandemics-end-history-suggests-diseases-fade-but-are-almost-never-truly-gone-146066" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">original article</a>.</p>
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Scientists stumble across new organs in the human head
New cancer-scanning technology reveals a previously unknown detail of human anatomy.
20 October, 2020
Credit: Valstar et al., Netherlands Cancer Institute
Surprising Science
- Scientists using new scanning technology and hunting for prostate tumors get a surprise.
- Behind the nasopharynx is a set of salivary glands that no one knew about.
- Finding the glands may allow for more complication-free radiation therapies.
<p>The research began about as far away from where it ended up as possible. Doctors were using PSMA PET/CT scans to assess whether patients' prostate cancer had spread to other parts of their bodies. In addition to being a promising new technology for detecting tumors, PSMA PET/CT scans also happen to be good at imaging salivary glands. Still, radiation oncologist Wouter Vogel and oral and maxillofacial surgeon Matthijs Valstar didn't know quite what to make of two lit-up areas behind the <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/human-body-maps/nasopharynx#1" target="_blank">nasopharynx</a> that looked an awful lot like big, undiscovered salivary glands.</p><p>Since finding a whole new organ in the human body at this point is unexpected, to say the least, the researchers re-examined the PSMA PET/CT from all 100 patients in their study, plus two cadavers. Every one of them had the same thing. </p><p><a href="https://www.nki.nl/topmenu/about-the-nki/news/cancer-researchers-discover-new-salivary-gland/" target="_blank">Says senior author of the study Vogel</a>, "As far as we knew, the only salivary or mucous glands in the nasopharynx are microscopically small, and up to 1000 are evenly spread out throughout the mucosa. So, imagine our surprise when we found these."</p><p>The study's lead author Valstar adds, "The two new areas that lit up turned out to have other characteristics of salivary glands as well."</p><p>Vogel and Valstar work for the <a href="https://www.nki.nl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="">Netherlands Cancer Institute</a>, specializing in the effects of radiation therapy on the head and neck. Their discovery may help technicians alleviate some common radiation side effects now that they know to avoid the new salivary organs, which they've named the "tubarial salivary glands."</p><p>The research is published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167814020308094" target="_blank">Radiotherapy & Oncology</a>.</p>
PSMA PET/CT technology
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="676e611b970c9b516cace0870447b325"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RHAyoQF09X4?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>PSMA PET/CT is a new combination of <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/pet-scan/about/pac-20385078" target="_blank">PET scans</a> and <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/ct-scan/about/pac-20393675" target="_blank">CT scans</a> that is believed to offer a more reliable means of locating prostate cancer metastasis. A <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2020/prostate-cancer-psma-pet-ct-metastasis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> published last spring suggests it may be the most accurate way to diagnose prostate cancer metastasis than any method previously available.</p><p>Prior to PSMA PET/CT, the primary way to look for metastatic prostate cancer was to image the body using x-ray-based CT scans and to perform bone scans, since bone is where prostate cancer often spreads. CT scans, however, often miss small tumors, and bone scans can generate false positives as a result of other damage or abnormalities that have nothing to do with prostate cancer.</p><p>PSMA PET/CT scans track the travels of an intravenously administered radioactive glucose tracer throughout the body. For hunting down prostate cancer, this tracer contains a molecule that binds to the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1472940/" target="_blank">PSMA</a> protein that's present in large amounts in prostate tumors. The molecule is linked to a radioisotope, <a href="https://netrf.org/2018/11/13/gallium-68-scan-for-neuroendocrine-tumors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">gallium-68</a> (Ga-68).</p><p>In last spring's research, PSAM PET/CT was shown to be 27 percent more accurate than previous methods at finding metastases (92 percent accuracy as opposed to 65 percent). In addition, it was found to be much less likely to produce false positives, and it was particularly good at detecting tumors far removed from the prostate.</p>A good kind of avoidance behavior
<p>"Radiation therapy can damage the salivary glands," says Vogel, "which may lead to complications. Patients may have trouble eating, swallowing, or speaking, which can be a real burden."</p><p>The researchers looked back through the cases of 723 patients who had undergone radiation treatment, interested in seeing if inadvertent radiation of the tubarial glands was associated with the complications experienced by the patients. It turned out that this <em>was</em> the case: In cases where more radiation had been delivered to this area, patients did indeed report more in the way of complications of the type one would expect when salivary glands are radiated.</p><p>Now that we know the tubarial salivary glands exist, therapists can stay out of their way. Vogel says, "For most patients, it should technically be possible to avoid delivering radiation to this newly discovered location of the salivary gland system in the same way we try to spare known glands."</p><p>He's hopeful that that things may be about to get at least a bit better for cancer patients: "Our next step is to find out how we can best spare these new glands and in which patients. If we can do this, patients may experience less side effects which will benefit their overall quality of life after treatment."</p>
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