Researchers in the US have developed a new tool designed to identify women at risk of heart disease much earlier than existing methods allow.

The findings, published in the journal JACC: Advances, highlight significant gaps in the risk assessment approaches currently used in clinical practice.

“Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, yet existing risk tools were developed in older populations and ignore factors unique to women,” said senior author Robert Platt, professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health and director of the School of Population and Global Health.

He noted that while pregnancy complications are known to be linked to future heart risk, there has until now been no reliable way of identifying which younger women are most at risk.

To build the tool, researchers analysed health data from more than 260,000 women in the UK aged between 15 and 45 who had given birth.

The team developed and validated a prediction model to estimate future heart disease risk, following participants for nearly four years after delivery.

The model identified several factors not included in existing risk tools that can help predict a woman’s likelihood of developing heart disease.

These include hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes, preterm birth, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), depression, thyroid disorders, oral contraceptive use and social deprivation.

The findings suggest that some women, particularly younger women often dismissed as low risk, may in fact face a higher risk of heart disease earlier than previously recognised.

“Millions of women who give birth each year are never considered candidates for cardiovascular risk assessment simply because of their age,” said co-author Kristian Filion, professor in the Departments of Medicine and of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health.

He added that if integrated into routine postpartum care, the tool could enable earlier monitoring, lifestyle counselling or referral to a specialist, potentially helping to prevent a heart attack or stroke later in life.

The research team’s next step is to validate the model using data from Canada and the United States.

In the longer term, they hope to integrate a practical calculator into electronic health records, allowing higher-risk patients to be identified and supported earlier.

Flexible working could help more women entrepreneurs become leaders of family firms by making it easier to balance work and family life, new research suggests.

Digital workplace tools may allow women to take a greater role in strategic decision-making and other leadership duties while maintaining family responsibilities. the report found.

They could also challenge the assumption that effective leaders must always be physically present at work.

Co-author Professor Kirk Chang said: “Technology such as Microsoft Teams and cloud-based collaboration platforms can create new opportunities for talented women to demonstrate leadership. But lasting change depends on family businesses judging leaders by their performance rather than their physical presence.”

Researchers from the University of East London say tools such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Workspace and cloud-based business systems can shift the focus from office attendance to measurable performance.

Cloud-based systems are online services that give employees remote access to documents, software and business information.

Family businesses are often considered family-friendly employers, but women can still face barriers to senior positions.

Leadership in these companies often passes between generations through informal family decisions rather than formal recruitment.

Traditional expectations around gender roles can make it harder for women with caring responsibilities to be seen as potential successors, particularly when being visible in the workplace is treated as a sign of commitment.

The researchers say digital workplace technology could make women’s contributions more visible while helping them manage work and family responsibilities.

Their proposed framework sets out four ways digital working could support women’s progression: building confidence, creating opportunities to take part in strategic decisions, increasing business knowledge and changing perceptions of who is ready to lead.

The authors stress that technology alone will not remove the barriers women face in reaching leadership roles. Family businesses must also develop cultures that value results over physical presence and actively support women pursuing senior positions.

Dr Ozlem Ozdemir, from the Royal Docks School of Business and Law, said: “Family businesses are built around close relationships, but that does not automatically make them easier places for women to become leaders. It can be tougher for women family members to be seen as ambitious professionals.

“Digital workplace tools can help shift the focus from who is seen most often in the office to who is making the strongest contribution.”

The paper draws its conclusions from existing research and proposes a framework showing how digital workplace innovation may improve work-life balance and support more women to become future leaders in family businesses.

A woman with advanced ovarian cancer has become the first patient globally to receive an experimental off-the-shelf cell therapy.

Tracy Tomlinson, 58, was given the experimental drug ZI-MA4-1 at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester.

The treatment forms part of a clinical trial evaluating its use against several cancer types, including ovarian, lung, head and neck cancers and sarcomas.

The Christie is leading the trial, with a second site at the Royal Marsden in London. It involves patients with advanced cancers who may have few other treatment options.

Tomlinson, from Chadderton in Greater Manchester, has undergone surgery and multiple rounds of chemotherapy since she was diagnosed in 2020.

She said: “They’ve got rid of the cancer twice but then it came back about two and a half years ago, and we’ve never seemed to get rid of it since then.

“The chemotherapy has shrunk it but when treatment stops, it has come back.

“It is a lot to live with and there’s been ups and downs – there’s been elation, there’s been disappointment, and bits in between.

“But I try very, very hard to remain very positive. Every day that I wake up is a positive. You’ve got to have hope.”

ZI-MA4-1 combines two approaches to cancer treatment.

It uses natural killer cells, known as NK cells, which are specialist immune cells that identify and destroy abnormal cells.

T-cell receptors on the donor cells are also engineered to recognise and target tumours producing a protein called Mage-A4.

Mage-A4 is found in several types of cancer and is considered by experts to be a potential target for attacking abnormal cells.

Unlike personalised treatments, ZI-MA4-1 is designed as an off-the-shelf therapy using immune cells from donors.

The treatment is manufactured in advance rather than being made separately for each patient, with hundreds of doses potentially produced from one manufacturing batch.

Experts believe this approach could make advanced cell therapies available to more patients, more quickly and at a lower cost.

Tomlinson was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that had spread shortly before Christmas 2020 and began treatment immediately.

By summer 2021, scans showed no evidence of disease, but the cancer returned around a year later.

Despite further treatment and 48 chemotherapy infusions, the cancer continued to return.

The former Civil Service manager was diagnosed with stage 3C ovarian cancer, meaning cancer growths had spread into the peritoneum, the tissue lining the abdominal cavity.

She currently has a tumour between her liver and kidney, as well as smaller tumours elsewhere.

She said: “They’ve got rid of the cancer twice but then it came back about two and a half years ago, and we’ve never seemed to get rid of it since then.

“The chemotherapy has shrunk it but when treatment stops, it has come back.

“It is a lot to live with and there’s been ups and downs – there’s been elation, there’s been disappointment, and bits in between.

“But I try very, very hard to remain very positive. Every day that I wake up is a positive. You’ve got to have hope.”

Tomlinson said she had been target-driven during her working life and had set herself high standards.

“But you can’t control cancer,” she said. “What I can control is how I look at it, how I deal with it, and trying to eat healthily and taking the positives in everything.

“And I’ve learned to appreciate the smallest of things that we take for granted – and the people around you and what they mean to you.

“Also, the beauty of outside and the trees and the colour of the trees and the birds singing.

“We just go from A to B, don’t we? Busy, busy, busy. But we never slow down and take in the wonder of what’s around us.

“I often think, ‘I’m still here’, and that’s helped me think, ‘Why can’t I still be here in 10 years?’, ‘Why can’t I still be here in 15 years?’

“And I believe taking all the treatments offered to me is helping me kick that can a bit further down the road.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. I’ve still got a lot of things I want to do and things I want to achieve.”

Tomlinson said her husband Paul, whom she married in 2022, is her “rock”. She is also close to her son Harry, 28.

Last year, she was referred to the Christie’s early-phase clinical trials team for extensive screening and learned she was eligible for the Zima-101 clinical trial.

She said: “I decided almost straight away that I was going to go for it.

“Then afterwards you think, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’, because it is a little bit scary being the first person in the world to have the treatment.”

She has received three infusions of the therapy, with the option of a fourth depending on her scan results.

She said: “If it benefits me, absolutely fantastic. But if it benefits other people in the future, that’s important too.

“I don’t want to have gone through everything I’ve gone through for nothing. I want to feel like I have made a difference.”

Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite, consultant medical oncologist at the Christie, said: “While this is an early-stage study primarily focused on safety, it represents an exciting step forward in efforts to develop new treatment options for people like Tracy with advanced solid tumours.

“We hope the knowledge gained will help shape future cancer treatments and ultimately improve outcomes for patients.”

Dr Jon Lim, consultant medical oncologist in advanced immunotherapy and cell therapy at the Christie, told PA: “What’s very exciting about this is that these are essentially not kind of antibody-based, but living cells.

“These are live immune cells that are infused in hundreds of millions back to the patient, and the idea of this is that it is a little bit more targeted.

“The reason this is very interesting is because this is the first of its kind globally in this approach, where it’s taking donor immune cells, manipulating or engineering them, and putting them into the recipient.

“Tracy is essentially getting somebody else’s immune cells that have been engineered to ‘see’ her cancer.

“We’re very excited. This is a novel approach in the cell therapy space. We are also really showcasing what we can do in the UK.”

Namir Hassan, chief executive of Norwegian company Zelluna, which makes ZI-MA4-1, described Tomlinson’s first dose as a “landmark moment”.

He said: “It represents the moment when years of research moved beyond the laboratory and into the clinic, offering a new potential treatment option for patients facing advanced cancers with limited alternatives.”

Only around 15 per cent of women survive ovarian cancer for five years or more after diagnosis.

Dr Diana Hernandez, director of immune and advanced therapies at Anthony Nolan, said: “NK cells have huge potential as off-the-shelf therapies, and this trial takes us one step closer to a wider application of engineered NK cells in the targeted treatment of cancers.”