College News

Health professionals regularly screen for five types of cancer — breast, colon, lung, prostate and cervical — yet those five comprise only half of all cancer deaths. Researchers at the University of Oklahoma are studying a new blood test that potentially can identify more than 50 types of cancer, notably the ones that might otherwise go undetected until after the cancer has spread.

Diabetes and heart disease often go hand in hand. People with diabetes face a much greater risk for heart attack and stroke than those without diabetes, and an estimated two-thirds of people with diabetes eventually die because of heart disease. To better understand that risk, University of Oklahoma researchers are studying the role of platelets, tiny blood cells that help the body form clots to stop a wound from bleeding.

This week, the Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced its federal action plan to carry out the work of the new National Strategy for Suicide Prevention — a structure developed with expertise from the University of Oklahoma.

In a study of patients who smoked when they were diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, those who quit smoking before starting chemotherapy or radiation responded better to treatment, were less likely to need their voice boxes surgically removed, and lived significantly longer than those who continued to smoke. The research, from the University of Oklahoma, is published in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Research increasingly suggests that when a woman with obesity becomes pregnant, a process of “fetal reprogramming” increases the risk that her baby will face problems like obesity, Type 2 diabetes and liver disease earlier in life. To better understand how that reprogramming occurs, University of Oklahoma researchers recently earned a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. They also will study whether an antioxidant called PQQ given to the mother can lower the risk of future metabolic problems for her offspring.