#uclh

[fitzrovianews]

Camden Council and UCLH caught red-handed taking tents from homeless people

The site in Huntley Street where the eviction of 12 homeless people took place. Photo: Fitzrovia News. Camden Council and University College London Hospitals (UCLH) were in the local and national media for all the wrong reasons over the weekend, with reports of council contractors, community presence officers, hospital security and the police evicting homeless people and throwing their tents…

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[reasonsforhope]

"Doctors have begun trialling the world’s first mRNA lung cancer vaccine in patients, as experts hailed its “groundbreaking” potential to save thousands of lives.

Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8m deaths every year. Survival rates in those with advanced forms of the disease, where tumours have spread, are particularly poor.

Now experts are testing a new jab that instructs the body to hunt down and kill cancer cells – then prevents them ever coming back. Known as BNT116 and made by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease.

The phase 1 clinical trial, the first human study of BNT116, has launched across 34 research sites in seven countries: the UK, US, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey.

The UK has six sites, located in England and Wales, with the first UK patient to receive the vaccine having their initial dose on Tuesday [August 20, 2024].

Overall, about 130 patients – from early-stage before surgery or radiotherapy, to late-stage disease or recurrent cancer – will be enrolled to have the jab alongside immunotherapy. About 20 will be from the UK.

The jab uses messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to Covid-19 vaccines, and works by presenting the immune system with tumour markers from NSCLC to prime the body to fight cancer cells expressing these markers.

The aim is to strengthen a person’s immune response to cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched, unlike chemotherapy.

“We are now entering this very exciting new era of mRNA-based immunotherapy clinical trials to investigate the treatment of lung cancer,” said Prof Siow Ming Lee, a consultant medical oncologist at University College London hospitals NHS foundation trust (UCLH), which is leading the trial in the UK.

“It’s simple to deliver, and you can select specific antigens in the cancer cell, and then you target them. This technology is the next big phase of cancer treatment.”

Janusz Racz, 67, from London, was the first person to have the vaccine in the UK. He was diagnosed in May and soon after started chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The scientist, who specialises in AI, said his profession inspired him to take part in the trial. “I am a scientist too, and I understand that the progress of science – especially in medicine – lies in people agreeing to be involved in such investigations,” he said...

“And also, I can be a part of the team that can provide proof of concept for this new methodology, and the faster it would be implemented across the world, more people will be saved.”

Racz received six consecutive injections five minutes apart over 30 minutes at the National Institute for Health Research UCLH Clinical Research Facility on Tuesday.

Each jab contained different RNA strands. He will get the vaccine every week for six consecutive weeks, and then every three weeks for 54 weeks.

Lee said: “We hope adding this additional treatment will stop the cancer coming back because a lot of time for lung cancer patients, even after surgery and radiation, it does come back.” ...

“We hope to go on to phase 2, phase 3, and then hope it becomes standard of care worldwide and saves lots of lung cancer patients.”

The Guardian revealed in May that thousands of patients in England were to be fast-tracked into groundbreaking trials of cancer vaccines in a revolutionary world-first NHS “matchmaking” scheme to save lives.

Under the scheme, patients who meet the eligibility criteria will gain access to clinical trials for the vaccines that experts say represent a new dawn in cancer treatment."

-via The Guardian, May 30, 2024

[covid-safer-hotties]

About this event

June 4, 2025

Event lasts 1 hour

Our next lecture in the series is with Emma Wall, visiting scientist in the Worldwide Influenza Centre. Long COVID has affected up to 2% of the entire UK population in the last 5 years, but we still don’t fully understand this often debilitating new disease. While we now know a lot more about this disease than we did in 2020, we still don’t have any proven treatments or diagnostic tests.

Emma Wall leads clinical research for the UCLH-Crick partnership on COVID-19. Her team at the Crick are focused on improving understanding of the biology of long COVID to help discover new ways to both prevent and treat this complex disease. Her talk will describe some of the work being done to test treatments for long COVID, and outline many of the interesting/pressing questions for those working in long COVID research.

The talk will be followed by a Q&A session, where Emma will be happy to answer any audience questions.

About Emma

Emma has been researching complex infections since first working in Australia and Uganda as a junior doctor, leading to a four-year PhD at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust clinical research programme in Malawi, Southern Africa, before moving to UCL and then the Crick as a post-doctoral clinical researcher. She is also a consultant in Infectious Diseases at UCLH, where she has been treating patients in the long COVID clinic since 2020. Outside of the lab, Emma enjoys running, gardening, cooking, playing the piano and hanging out with her family and friends.

Please note, this lecture is being recorded to be shared at a later date. We will have cameras in some of the rows and some seats may have a restricted view. The recording will feature only the speaker, the audience will not appear on film.

_____________________________________________

There's supposed to be a stream on the date, and a recording will be made available after the event.

[versodile]

UCLH Cruciform building, London

[simshousewindsor]

HOUSE OF HASTINGS (2025)

His Royal Highness The Duke of Hastings (Earl of Ponovo, Baron Gloucerstone) and wife Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Hastings; daughter Her Highness Lady Joan Cross and husband Lord Francis Cross; and son and heir to the dukedom of Hastings His Highness Lord Jonathan.

Prince Vester is the only son of Prince Albert, Duke of Hastings, and grandson of Edward I and Queen Lara-Leigh. His father died before he and his twin sister (Viola) were born. Although he and his sister were granted HRH styles at birth, Vester was not bestowed his father's dukedom. At the time of his birth, he was 9th in the line of succession to the Windenburg throne.

The prince married Hattie on 11 Jul 1998 in a private ceremony at Windsor Castle. The pair had two children, Lady Joan in 1999 and Lord Jonathan in 2001.

Prince Vester was finally bestowed the dukedom of Hastings in March 2023 by King George, shortly before the sovereigns death, after members of the royal family had petitioned for decades in favor.

The Duke has quickly become associated with over 150 charities and organizations. His patronages reflect his professional and personal interests, which include international humanitarian issues, heritage and the built environment and military veterans. Many of The Duke's Patronages are related to architecture and conservation, both areas in which The Duke remains deeply interested.

The Duke is Patron or President of many charities and organizations, covering a diverse range of causes and interests, ranging from the Windenburg Association of Friends of Museums, Windenburg-Americreek Society to St Bartomous's Hospital, and the Windenburg Homeopathic Association to the Mt Komorebi Society.

Hattie, a defense attorney, ran a private practice. After becoming Duchess of Hastings in 2023, Hattie stopped practicing law but remained president of the firms board. The Duchess has been involved in many of the dukes patronages such as University College Hospital.

UCLH has had a decades-long and special relationship with the Royal Family. His late Majesty King George was Patron of University College Hospital and the Royal Easton Hospital for Integrated Medicine until his death in 2023; Queen Katherine is patron of the latter. In October 2022, in one of his last major public engagements before his death, King George opened UCLH’s Royal National ENT and Southman Dental Hospitals. The Duchess has visited several of their hospitals, most recently UCLH's Royal Walden Cancer Centre in August 2024.

[konstruktivenachrichten]

Eine Folge von Covid kann der Verlust des Geruchs- und Geschmackssinns sein. Eine experimentelle Operation kann Patienten helfen, diesen schneller zurückzugewinnen.

[isupportzaynxliamxziam]

Wednesday, 30 January 2019

Last Friday, Liam hosted a Charity Poker Event for UCLH London, which raised £17,613 pounds, mainly thanks to an huge donation from Nick Raphael, the President of Capitol Records UK

credits: liam93productions' Tumblr

[mightyflamethrower]

 group of senior clinical psychologists have apologised for the role their profession played in the promotion of transgender ‘medical’ treatments to children in the UK following a damning report which found that such interventions were done on “shaky foundations”.

In a joint letter published by the left-wing Guardian’s sister paper The Observer, 16 unnamed “senior clinical psychologists”, including some who actually worked in the now-discredited Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinics that prescribed hundreds of children life-altering puberty-blocking drugs, said that their profession led the way in pushing children into such a direction.

“These were psychology-led services. Whether intentionally or not, and many were doing their best in an impossible situation, it was clinical psychologists who promoted an ideology that was almost impossible to challenge,” they wrote.

“It is also our professional body, the British Psychological Society, that has failed (despite years of pressure) to produce guidelines for clinicians working with young people in this complex area; and that, forced into making an official response for the first time, now minimises its own role in events and calls for ‘more psychology’ as the answer. We are ashamed of the role psychology has played,” the group added.

They said that what occurred at GIDS clinics was a “multi-factorial systemic failure” but said that those within the psychology profession should be “fully examined” and held accountable for the role they played, noting that many “failed to carry out proper assessments of troubled young people, and thus put many on an ‘irreversible medical pathway’ that in most cases was inappropriate; and who failed in their most basic duty to keep proper records.”

The admission comes in the wake of a National Health Service-sponsored report from leading paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, which argued that the NHS should no longer provide puberty-blocking drugs to children under the age of 18, given that many of that their prescription was “built on shaky foundations”.

The Cass report went on to say there is little evidence to support the so-called ‘gender affirming’ claim that hormone-altering treatments improved children’s mental health and that there has been little investigation into the potential ramifications such drugs have on the “cognitive and psychosexual development” of the children as they age.

Additionally, it argued that because many children will naturally grow past feelings of gender dysphoria “for most young people, a medical pathway will not be the best way to manage their gender-related distress”.

A preliminary version of the report forced the NHS to order the closure of the Tavistock Centre and its controversial Gender Identity Development Service clinic, which served as the nation’s top transgender clinic for children. Cass argued that the treatments offered by Tavistock were “not a safe or viable long-term option” for children.

The clinic has long faced criticism over the apparent lax standards used to determine if children were displaying signs of transgenderism, with former governor of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, Dr David Bell, whistleblowing in 2022 to reveal that that staff would make such decisions based on flimsy evidence, such as if young girls failed to show interest in “pink ribbons and dollies“.

Last year, a re-examination of a 2011 study from University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and the Tavistock Centre — which claimed that there were no negative impacts of puberty blockers on the psychological function of 12 to 15-year-olds — overturned the initial claims, with University of Essex Professor of Psychology Susan McPherson and social scientist David Freedman finding instead that 34 per cent of children placed on puberty-blocking drugs saw their mental health “reliably deteriorate”.

While many in the United States continue to advocate for medical interventions for allegedly transgender children, there is a growing consensus in Europe against the practice, with progressive countries such as Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the UK having all begun to restrict transgender treatments for children. Last month, a report commissioned by French senators asserted that providing children with life-altering transgender drugs will be remembered as one of the “greatest ethical scandals in medical history” and called for the practice to be restricted in France as well.

Don't expect to see anything like this in the US. American Leftist never admit being wrong. Never

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Hannah Barnes

Published: Sep 19, 2023

The majority of children in a landmark study on puberty blockers experienced positive or negative changes in their mental health, new analysis suggests.

The original study of 44 children, who all took the controversial drugs for a year or more, found no mental health impact - neither benefits nor harm.

But a re-analysis of that data now suggests 34% saw their mental health deteriorate, while 29% improved.

The authors of the original report have welcomed the new evidence.

The re-analysis, which has been seen by BBC Newsnight, questions some of the conclusions from the 2021 study about the potential mental health impact of puberty blockers on under 16s. It also sheds some light on this much-debated, but little understood, area of children's medicine.

The new study has not been in a peer-reviewed journal yet. The authors say they felt there was an urgency in getting the information into the public domain.

The original study

In 2011, a team from the Tavistock's Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) - England's only NHS specialist gender clinic for children - and University College London Hospitals (UCLH) embarked on what became known as the early intervention study.

They enrolled 44 children, aged between 12 and 15, over the following three years. The study looked at the impact taking puberty blockers - medicines used to postpone puberty in children - was having. It resulted in the age at which puberty blockers could be offered on the NHS being lowered.

When the landmark study's results were published in 2021, it revealed blockers brought "no changes in psychological function" to those taking them.

But this differed from earlier findings of Dutch researchers, who pioneered this approach to treating gender dysphoria. They reported a positive impact on young people's mental health and wellbeing.

The early intervention study used scores from both parent and child questionnaires, which assessed children's behavioural and emotional problems. These are widely and reliably used in psychology in many countries and include more than 100 questions on things like school, feelings, and relationships.

The overall finding of "no change" was based on a group average - or mean - of those scores, given at different points in time.

"That's a very standard way of doing things," Professor Chris Evans, a retired psychiatrist and psychotherapist, told Newsnight. "The problem is it doesn't pay attention to how much variation there was across the participants."

For example, a quarter could score extremely high, a quarter could score quite high, a quarter could score quite badly, and a quarter could score extremely badly. Yet the group average would be somewhere in the middle.

Re-analysis of data

Prof Susan McPherson, from the University of Essex, and David Freedman, a retired social scientist, have since re-analysed the data. They instead looked at the individual trajectories of each of the young people in the early intervention study.

They found, after 12 months of puberty blocker injections - 34% of the children had reliably deteriorated, 29% had reliably improved, and 37% showed no change, according to their self-reported answers.

The proportions were a little lower in the parents' scores, but in three quarters of the cases, there was broad agreement between parents and their children.

The impact on each of the children varied.

For a child who "deteriorated", it could mean moving from being psychologically well and not needing treatment for their mental health, to meeting criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis such as depression or anxiety. Whereas a child who "improved" could move from needing mental health treatment to being considered mentally well.

However, what neither the original research paper, nor the re-analysis, can do is tell us why these young people fared so differently.

The study is small - just 44 young people. And because of the way the original study was designed - without a control group - experts can't infer cause and effect or say these changes in wellbeing were caused by being on puberty blockers.

But despite those limitations, the new analysis suggests the need for more research, both into this specific group and on the impact of puberty blockers more generally.

Mr Freedman argues it is vital that young people and their families have the "best information possible" when making decisions on medical treatment.

Gaps in evidence

In June NHS England announced that puberty blockers will only be made available to young people taking part in clinical trials.

Dr Hilary Cass's interim report into children's gender services highlighted "gaps in evidence" around the drugs, and a systematic review carried out by NICE found the quality of the evidence for the use of puberty blockers in this context to be "very low".

Similar reviews have been undertaken in Sweden and Finland, with both reaching the same conclusion. A number of other European countries have begun taking a more cautious, less medical approach to helping young people questioning their gender identity.

Both the Tavistock and Portman Trust and UCLH said they welcomed new contributions to the evidence base around how to support young people with gender incongruence.

A spokesperson from Tavistock and Portman [NHS Foundation] Trust said data from the original study had been published to allow other researchers to conduct "further analyses". It said the analysis plan for the original study was independently produced by experts in medical statistics.

A spokesperson for UCLH said it supported Dr Cass's recommendation that "research should be fully embedded in the development of new services for children and young people expressing gender incongruence".

They added: "We will work closely with the new national [Children and Young People's Gender Dysphoria] research oversight board to support the collection and analysis of robust data in this area."

The board will oversee the design and conduct of the new puberty-blocker research trial, as well as ensure research is embedded at the heart of new children and young people's gender dysphoria services.

The Cass Review Team told the BBC that it has commissioned "an updated systematic review" of academic publications on puberty blockers.

This review, along with this new analysis will be taken into account in its final recommendations, which are expected by the end of the year.

[fitzrovianews]

Camden 'discussing the final terms' with UCLH Charity after losing in High Court over social rented homes

Work continues at the former Middlesex Hospital Annex and Strand Union Workhouse site. Photo: Fitzrovia News. Camden Council is in discussions with UCLH Charity after it lost its high court battle over the building of 30 social rented homes on the former Middlesex Hospital Annex and Strand Union Workhouse site on Cleveland Street in Fitzrovia. The judgement in favour of UCLH Charity was…

[itsfoof]

Back at UCLH

[aitoolswhitehattoolbox]

Clinical Research Nurse

The Rheumatology Research Team at University College London Hospital (UCLH) is expanding and are seeking two Band 5 Nurses to join the team. This role offers an opportunity to enter the exciting filed of clinical research without prior rese… Apply Now

[innonurse]

Researchers develop hand-held scanner for rapid, high-quality 3D imaging to aid disease diagnosis in clinical settings

- By InnoNurse Staff -

Researchers at University College London (UCL) have developed a hand-held scanner that can produce high-quality 3D photoacoustic images in seconds, advancing the use of this technology in clinical settings.

The scanner uses laser-generated ultrasound waves to capture intricate images of blood vessels and tissues up to 15mm deep. Unlike previous models that took over five minutes to generate images, this new device significantly improves speed and image quality, making it practical for frail or ill patients.

The technology, described in Nature Biomedical Engineering, was tested on University College London Hospitals (UCLH) patients with conditions like diabetes, arthritis, and breast cancer. It produced detailed scans of blood vessels, aiding in the early diagnosis of diseases.

Larger trials are ongoing, and researchers expect the scanner could help diagnose cancer, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis within five years. The breakthrough is particularly relevant for conditions like inflammatory arthritis, where fast and precise imaging is crucial for treatment.

This study was supported by several prominent health research organizations, including Cancer Research UK and the European Research Council.

Header image credit: Image Creator in Bing/DALL.E (AI-generated)

Read more at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

///

Other recent news and insights

Device provides the first cost-effective, portable solution for assessing stroke risk based on physiological factors (California Institute of Technology/Medical Xpress)

[simshousewindsor]

By Shon Gableton | Published by SNN

GLOUCERSTONE, Windenburg (SNN) - - The Duchess of Hastings is taking a practical approach to her new leadership role at University College Hospital (UCLH).

Hattie is president of University College Hospital – a patronage her and her husband took on in early 2024. After witnessing two operations take place Thursday, she stepped out of the Windenburg hospital’s Gloucerstone location and, smiling, declared she felt “good – still standing!”

In images Hattie, 67, scrubbed up and wore a surgical mask to see the experts at work.

The Duchess spent about 30 minutes in two operations – a breast reconstruction and a removal of a bladder tumor.

During the visit to the leading cancer hospital, she also met with staff, who showed her the latest radiotherapy technology, called CybersimKnife.

A palace source tells SNN Hattie was “fascinated” by what she saw. A hospital spokeswoman says she was “calm and interested in the pioneering and innovative surgeries being performed by female surgeons.”

[teknolojihaber]

67 yaşındaki Janusz Racz, BioNTech akciğer kanseri aşısını alan ilk kişi oldu

Dünyanın ilk akciğer kanseri aşısı denemeleri İngiltere'de başladı. 67 yaşındaki akciğer kanseri hastası Janusz Racz, bu çığır açan aşıyı alan ilk kişi oldu. Kendisi birden fazla ülkede yürütülen bir klinik araştırmanın parçası. Alman biyoteknoloji firması BioNTech, BNT116 adı verilen mRNA bazlı bu aşıyı geliştirdi. Aşı, daha sonra kanser hücrelerini tanıyan ve onlarla savaşan bağışıklık sistemini aktive ederek çalışır. Ulusal araştırmaya liderlik eden University College London Hastaneleri'nden (UCLH) danışman tıbbi onkolog Siow Ming Lee, "Artık akciğer kanserinin tedavisini araştırmak için mRNA bazlı immünoterapi klinik araştırmalarının bu çok heyecan verici yeni çağına giriyoruz" dedi. Lee şunları ekledi: "Akciğer kanseri, 2020'de tahmini 1,8 milyon ölümle dünya çapında kanser ölümlerinin önde gelen nedeni olmaya devam ediyor." mRNA bazlı aşı Bu deneysel kanser immünoterapisi, küçük hücreli dışı akciğer kanserinin (KHDAK) tedavisi için tasarlanmış . KHDAK akciğer kanserinin en yaygın türüdür. Hastanın bağışıklık sistemini NSCLC ile ilişkili tümör belirteçlerine maruz bırakmak için haberci RNA'yı kullanır. Bu, bağışıklık sisteminin bu belirteçleri taşıyan kanser hücrelerini tanımlamasına ve onlara saldırmasına olanak tanır. Birkaç hafta boyunca hastalara, her biri benzersiz bir RNA dizisine sahip çok sayıda iğne verilecek. Deneysel aşı, öncelikle kanser hücrelerinde bulunan hedeflere karşı bağışıklık tepkilerini artırmak, böylece sağlıklı, kanserli olmayan hücrelere zarar verme riskini en aza indirmek için özel olarak tasarlanmıştır. Bu, genellikle hem kötü huylu hem de sağlıklı hücrelere zarar veren kemoterapiden farklıdır. "Benimsediğimiz yaklaşımın gücü, tedavinin yüksek oranda kanser hücrelerini hedeflemeyi hedeflemesidir. Bu şekilde zamanla tedavinin akciğer kanserine karşı etkili olduğunu ve diğer dokulara dokunulmadığını gösterebileceğimizi umuyoruz" dedi UCLH danışmanı tıbbi onkolog Dr. Sarah Benafif. Bu ilk deneme, BNT116'nın güvenliğini ve tolere edilebilirliğini belirleyecektir. Denemeye, ameliyat veya radyoterapi öncesindeki erken aşamadan, hastalığın geç evresine veya tekrarlayan kansere kadar çeşitli aşamalardaki KHDAK hastaları dahil edilecek. 130 hasta katılacak Çalışmaya, altısı Birleşik Krallık'ta olmak üzere yedi ülkedeki 34 araştırma merkezinden yaklaşık 130 katılımcı katılacak. Diğer ülkeler arasında ABD, Almanya, Macaristan, Polonya, İspanya ve Türkiye yer alıyor. Denemenin ilk hastası olan Racz, teşhisini mayıs ayında aldı ve hemen ardından kemoterapi ve radyasyon tedavisine başladı. Salı günü Racz, Ulusal Sağlık Araştırmaları Enstitüsü UCLH Klinik Araştırma Tesisi'nde arka arkaya altı enjeksiyondan oluşan başlangıç ​​dozunu aldı. Bildirildiğine göre, her enjeksiyon bir öncekinden beş dakika sonra uygulandı ve tüm süreç 30 dakika sürdü. Racz, aşıyı art arda altı hafta boyunca her hafta, ardından 54 hafta boyunca her üç haftada bir aşılanacak. "Ben de bir bilim insanı olarak bilimin ancak insanların bu tür programlara katılmayı kabul etmesi durumunda ilerleyebileceğini biliyorum. Yapay zeka alanında çalışıyorum ve yeni şeyler denemeye açığım. Ailem de davayla ilgili araştırma yaptı ve benim de katılmamı destekledi” dedi . Read the full article