Diagnosis
UK research paves way for new preeclampsia therapies
A preeclampsia study has found unusual cell activity in mothers and babies that could reveal new targets for treatment.
The condition affects 2 to 4 per cent of pregnancies worldwide and is a leading cause of maternal and foetal mortality.
There is currently no cure, and severe cases can put both the mother and baby at risk.
Scientists from UCL and University College London Hospitals found that stressed placental cells, poorly functioning blood vessels and an overactive immune response all contribute to the condition.
Preeclampsia causes high blood pressure during pregnancy. It can affect blood flow to the baby and cause symptoms such as swelling, headaches, blurred vision and pain under the ribs.
Without treatment, it can damage the mother’s health, slow the baby’s growth and, in severe cases, become life-threatening.
Previous research has focused only on the placenta, the organ that develops during pregnancy to support the baby’s growth, rather than the tissues around it.
The researchers said the findings could reveal new therapeutic targets, which are biological processes that future treatments could be designed to alter.
Senior author professor Sara Hillman, of the UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health, said: “We studied individual cells from both the mother and the baby to see how their activity changes in healthy pregnancies compared with preeclampsia.
“This helped us to confirm some changes already suspected in the condition and also discover new ones.”
The team studied 20 pregnant women recruited at UCLH, including 10 with severe preeclampsia and 10 without the condition.
They used genomic testing to examine individual cells in the placenta and other tissues where cells from the developing baby and mother come into contact.
Genomic testing examines genetic information to help researchers understand how cells behave and the roles they may play.
The other tissues studied were the myometrium, the muscular layer of the womb, and the chorioamniotic membranes, which surround the baby during pregnancy.
The team compared cells from healthy pregnancies and those affected by preeclampsia at different gestational ages, meaning different stages of pregnancy.
They used technology that can read the genetic information of thousands of individual cells at the same time, allowing them to see what each cell was doing and where it was located in the tissue.
In preeclamptic pregnancies where babies were born prematurely, before 37 weeks, during the third trimester, placental cells showed signs of stress and low oxygen levels.
The cells also did not use energy in the normal way.
Some cells responsible for reshaping the mother’s blood vessels were not working properly, the researchers found, which may affect blood flow to the baby.
There were also signs of an overactive immune response in the placenta, nearby tissues and the mother’s blood.
The researchers said this response, together with other stress molecules released by the placenta, helps explain why preeclampsia affects the whole body and can become serious.
They hope the findings will help researchers find treatments for the condition and potentially save lives.
Co-lead author Dr Yara Sanchez Corrales, of the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said: “These findings point to specific biological processes that could be targeted with treatments. Acting early in pregnancy, especially in more severe early-onset cases, could help improve outcomes and reduce the high risks associated with severe preeclampsia.
“We hope that our findings may set us on the path to reducing premature births and fatalities associated with preeclampsia.”
Co-lead author Mr Theodoros Xenakis, of the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said: “Future studies may provide an even clearer picture of the biological changes linked to the disease by including more participants and using even more precise methods.”
Menopause is often absent from women’s electronic health records, a study of nearly 396,000 women has found.
Researchers found menopause appeared almost seven times more often in participant surveys than in electronic health records (EHRs).
The findings suggest important reproductive health information, including age at menopause, may often be missing from health records used for research.
Audrey Hendricks, associate professor of bioinformatics at CU Anschutz and the study’s principal investigator, said: “Ultimately, we cannot study what we do not measure. We cannot treat what we do not know.
“Menopause has enormous implications for women’s health, but if we don’t consistently capture when menopause occurs and other important reproductive health information, we limit our ability to understand how this transition affects disease risk and health outcomes.”
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz analysed data from women taking part in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program.
They compared menopause information reported by participants in surveys with menopause diagnoses recorded in their electronic health records.
Around 193,000 menopause observations were identified in survey data, compared with approximately 28,000 diagnoses in EHR data.
Menopause was documented in electronic health records for only about 7 per cent of women in the dataset.
Nearly all participants with a menopause diagnosis recorded in their EHR also reported menopause in survey data. However, substantially fewer women had menopause documented in their health records.
Other important information was also frequently unavailable, including age at menopause, which researchers may use when examining links between menopause and chronic disease risk.
Menopause is a physiological transition that can affect cardiometabolic health and many other aspects of women’s health.
Researchers said relatively little is known about how factors including the timing and type of menopause influence health outcomes across diverse populations.
Large-scale programmes such as All of Us combine participant surveys, electronic health records and genomic data, but menopause-related research depends on relevant reproductive health information being available.
Missing menopause information can make it harder to investigate how the transition relates to health and disease.
The findings may also help researchers using All of Us data define menopause-related study populations, design studies and estimate how many participants are needed.
Hendricks said: “We have an enormous opportunity to use large-scale datasets to understand women’s health across the menopause transition and to identify who may be at greater risk for disease.
“But we need to make sure that the information researchers need is actually being collected.
“We must do a better job of capturing women’s health information, including reproductive health and measures related to menopause.”
Researchers said more complete and consistent collection of menopause and reproductive health information could help future studies examine factors such as age at menopause and their relationship with disease risk and health outcomes.
The FDA has granted accelerated approval to AstraZeneca drug Etcamah for certain adults with advanced breast cancer carrying an ESR1 mutation.
Etcamah, also known as camizestrant, was approved in combination with a CDK4/6 inhibitor, either abemaciclib, palbociclib or ribociclib.
The treatment is for adults with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer when an estrogen receptor-1 (ESR1) mutation is detected during aromatase inhibitor and CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy using an FDA-authorised test.
ESR1 mutations are acquired resistance mutations that tumours may develop during treatment with aromatase inhibitors, a type of endocrine therapy commonly used as a front-line treatment for locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
Fewer than 5 per cent of patients have the mutation when HR-positive metastatic breast cancer is diagnosed, according to the FDA. After disease progression on an aromatase inhibitor, nearly 40 per cent have the mutation.
Acting FDA commissioner Kyle Diamantas said: “Women living with metastatic breast cancer face an uphill battle as their tumors continuously evolve to escape treatment.
“We owe them every weapon in our arsenal.
“Today’s approval delivers a win to these patients by granting them a targeted therapy designed specifically to overcome resistance, giving them more time before their disease progresses.”
The accelerated approval programme allows earlier approval of drugs that treat serious conditions and fill an unmet medical need based on surrogate or intermediate endpoints.
For Etcamah, approval was based on how long patients lived without their disease worsening, measured from when the resistance mutation was first detected in their blood.
The FDA said it has not yet been confirmed whether intervening when the mutation is detected, rather than waiting until disease progression is confirmed, results in a clinically meaningful benefit. Confirmatory studies are therefore required to verify and describe clinical benefit.
Angelo de Claro, director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, said: “I commend both the FDA and the sponsor for their commitment to advancing cancer care and securing this accelerated approval.
“This marks the first FDA approval of a cancer therapy guided by the detection of a resistance mutation in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) before imaging tests show that the disease is progressing.
“But additional evidence is needed to confirm clinical benefit.”
Circulating tumour DNA, or ctDNA, consists of small pieces of tumour DNA released into the blood and can allow earlier molecular detection of resistance mutations.
The FDA also authorised the Guardant360 CDx assay as a companion diagnostic to identify patients with breast cancer who have ESR1 mutations for treatment with camizestrant.
Efficacy was assessed in a clinical trial comparing a switch to Etcamah plus a CDK4/6 inhibitor with continued treatment using an aromatase inhibitor plus a CDK4/6 inhibitor.
Estimated median progression-free survival was 16 months in the Etcamah group, compared with 9.2 months in the aromatase inhibitor group.
Etcamah’s prescribing information includes a boxed warning about the risk of irregular heart rhythm when taken with certain other medicines. It also includes warnings about an abnormally slow heart rate and potential harm to an unborn baby.
The FDA convened its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee for the application on 30 April 2026.
Four leading cardiovascular health groups have agreed new guidance for healthcare professionals assessing patients with suspected heart attacks.
Historically, some less common forms of heart attack, which evidence shows affect women far more than men, have been classified as less important, with treatment and care often worse as a result.
Experts said women had been receiving less effective treatments that did not always target the specific cause of their heart attack and could even make them more unwell.
The changes were announced in Munich on the opening day of the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
Professor Bryan Williams, chief scientific and medical officer of the British Heart Foundation, said: “This is a landmark moment, a radical shift in how we define and diagnose heart attacks worldwide which will transform people’s care.
“For decades, women have missed out on accurate diagnoses and treatment.
“This focus on finding less common causes of heart attacks, which predominantly affect women, should help to change that. It could be life-changing for huge numbers of women in the UK and worldwide.”
The new guidance upgrades three types of heart attack that can be up to 10 times more common in women and are often caused by childbirth, exercise and emotional stress.
The most serious cases, previously known as “type 1” and now classed as “primary” heart attacks, had previously prioritised those caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the heart.
Other forms can involve reduced blood flow for different reasons, including the tightening or tearing of coronary arteries. These can be more likely to be missed or treated less urgently.
The guidance also introduces a lower diagnostic threshold for women based on levels of troponin, a protein released into the blood when the heart is injured and damaged.
Previously, women were expected to meet the same troponin threshold as men to receive a diagnosis.
Williams said the streamlined heart attack categories would also help patients understand the cause of their heart attack and what comes next.
The three upgraded types are coronary artery spasm, coronary embolism and spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD).
Coronary artery spasm involves the tightening of an artery, which can deprive the heart muscle of blood and oxygen. It can be caused by emotional stress, exercise or extreme cold.
Coronary embolism occurs when a blood clot or fatty deposit travels to a coronary artery and causes a blockage.
SCAD is caused by a tear in a coronary artery. Around 80 per cent of cases occur in women, and it often happens during or soon after pregnancy.
Professor Nicholas Mills, a cardiologist at the University of Edinburgh who led the international taskforce behind the guidance, said it was “the first time that we’ve had a truly global approach to aligning how we diagnose what is probably the most important diagnosis there is”.
He said: “It kills so many people, and we’ve never got everyone together around the world to agree how we’re going to describe it, classify it, explain it to our patients.
“Our job now is to implement this as widely as possible. It’s just as relevant for the UK as it is for any other country around the world. It is a revolution. It’s going to make care better for patients.”
Mills said there had been “unintended systematic bias against women”, including through the use of the key blood test for diagnosing heart attacks at an average level, which picks up all men but misses some women.
He said: “This is used for all types of heart attack in every emergency department in the world, and we want to make sure that it’s used correctly.”
The guidance was drawn up by the ESC, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the World Heart Federation.
Pregnancy2 weeks agoKOVE Medical raises €1.7 million to improve safety of foetal surgery
Menopause2 days agoMenopause may not explain rising heart condition in women – study
Pregnancy6 days agoParacetamol use may impact future fertility, studies suggest
Entrepreneur1 week agoLast chance to save on Women’s Health Week and Women’s Sport Summit: Early Bird pricing ends 11 September
Menopause2 weeks agoMenopause hormone treatment may ease brain fog, study suggests
Menopause1 week agoCancer drug could tackle osteoporosis menopause weight gain
Insight3 days agoWomen with birth trauma face 2.5x higher healthcare costs – study
Menopause2 weeks agoMenopausal women posing as men to buy testosterone amid NHS access issues