College News

Both obesity and metabolic syndrome – a cluster of conditions like high blood pressure and high blood sugar – increase the risk of breast cancer, but in differing ways for different subtypes of the cancer. A University of Oklahoma researcher helped to lead a national study that produced those results, which may help physicians better care for patients at higher risk for breast cancer.

With a $1.2 million grant to the University of Oklahoma, an OU Health urologic oncologist is leading an innovative new clinical trial for the treatment of prostate cancer when the cancer is beginning to spread beyond the prostate. The trial, offered at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center, will study the combination of two drugs, each of which is already used to treat prostate cancer but has not been evaluated together.

University of Oklahoma researchers have deepened their understanding of a drug’s ability to prevent fat buildup in the liver, a condition that often occurs with obesity and can lead to serious fatty liver disease. Their findings – which illustrate the complexity of metabolic disorders – are published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer-reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences.

Research at the University of Oklahoma, in collaboration with The University of Tulsa, has resulted in a new method of screening for sleep disorders in children. The tool, the first of its kind, allows health professionals to assess children for multiple sleep problems at once, resulting in a quicker evaluation and more targeted treatment recommendations.