Magic-mushroom compound prevents nerve damage caused by chemotherapy

Hello Nature readers,
This week, we learn that psilocybin can protect mice from chemo-induced nerve damage, hear that a newly approved drug for pancreatic cancer could treat lung cancer and discover that alcohol-related cancer deaths have doubled in the United States.

Psilocybin halts chemo nerve damage

Psilocybin can prevent chemotherapy from causing nerve damage in mice, and might help people avoid neuropathy, a painful side effect of platinum-based cancer drugs that causes a feeling of burning or pins and needles, in the hands and feet. Mice given two doses of psilocybin before each round of chemotherapy treatment over eight months showed no signs of nerve decay, whereas the mice treated with chemotherapy alone had dulled sensation and pain hypersensitivity in their paws. A clinical trial of pre-chemo psilocybin is now planned in people with breast, colorectal and head and neck cancers.

Pancreatic drug could tackle lung cancer

Results from a small clinical trial show that the drug daraxonrasib (Rasonque) could be an effective treatment for lung cancer. The findings came just one week after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the medicine for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. A larger study in which people with lung cancer are randomly assigned to receive daraxonrasib or standard chemotherapy is now under way, the results of which could inform the FDA’s decision to approve the drug as a lung cancer treatment.

Alcohol-related cancer deaths double in US

Cancer deaths that can be attributed to alcohol have more than doubled in the United States over three decades. In 1990, more than 11,000 people in the US died from alcohol-related cancer; in 2023, that figure had shot up to more than 23,000. Men aged 55 and over were the most at-risk group, and liver, esophageal, breast and colorectal cancers were among the most common alcohol-attributable causes of death. The study highlights “the critical need for targeted prevention efforts and increased awareness”, report the authors.

More evidence for morning immunotherapy

People with advanced cancer who were given immunotherapy earlier in the day lived longer than those treated later in the day, according to a retrospective, observational study of around 2,600 people. A randomized trial is needed to determine whether this is a causal relationship or simply a correlation. “It might be that people arriving for treatment later are less well, are more frail, are relying on hospital transport,” says medical oncologist and study co-author Paul Lorigan. Time-of-day studies for immunotherapy have been controversial in the past, with a recent Nature Medicine paper on the topic being retracted.

A ‘medical kidnapping’ to treat cancer

Last year, an Oklahoma mother worked to remove her 17-year-old son, Presten, from hospital where he was receiving court-ordered treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia. She placed her son under the care of a naturopath — an unlicensed practitioner who recommends natural remedies to treat illnesses. Presten’s physicians strongly advised against his discharge, which sparked outrage from some figures in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. “One of the greatest risks to a MAHA parent is medical kidnapping,” said one podcaster. Presten now lives with his adoptive father and says, “the doctors — they saved my life”.

‘High as the Empire State Building’

The cost of generating the evidence needed to launch a phase I clinical trial has doubled since 2017 in the United States. One problem is that there is more red tape around drug trials and approvals than ever before, writes Ruxandra Teslo, a nonresident fellow at the Institute for Progress. The former chief scientific officer at pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk once quipped that the paperwork required to approve two insulin products, if printed and stacked, would tower over the Empire State Building. In response, drug manufacturers are now taking clinical trials to countries such as China and Australia where they are easier to run, meaning that Americans have fewer opportunities to try experimental therapies, Teslo writes.