In today’s Good News, an innovative “smart drug” shows promise in fighting recurrent head and neck cancer, the seventh most common form of the disease worldwide. And to keep old plastic fishing nets out of the garbage, a man in England transforms them into fabric for 3D printing.

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

Breastfeeding may help protect women from aggressive breast cancers by creating long-term immune defenses, researchers from Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Center reported in the journal Nature. Women who breastfed have more specialized T-cells in breast tissue, the researchers found. Those T-cells, which can attack tumors, persist for decades, reducing cancer growth. Understanding this mechanism could help develop new vaccines to replicate the effect.

A tiny implant can restore the central vision of people with age-related macular degeneration, a previously untreatable condition, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. In a trial funded by Science Corporation, the photovoltaic retina implant microarray (PRIMA) system was inserted in the eyes of 38 patients and connected to augmented reality glasses equipped with a video camera, enabling signals to be transmitted to the brain. After one year, 80% of participants regained enough vision to read, researchers said.

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They can store and release excess energy

Giving patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer an injection of the drug amivantamab can shrink tumors within six weeks, according to research presented at a recent European Society for Medical Oncology conference. Amivantamab is a “smart drug” that targets cancer three ways, blocking two cancer pathways and activating the immune system, said The Guardian. In a trial of 86 patients funded by the pharmaceutical company Janssen, 76% of participants saw their tumors shrink or stop growing after treatment.

Tired of seeing discarded plastic fishing nets at a local harbor, Ian Falconer of Cornwall, England, came up with a way to give them new life outside of the landfill. He launched the company OrCA, which cleans and shreds the nets, melts them down and turns the plastic into a filament used for 3D printing. The material can be used “for just about anything,” said The Guardian, including sunglasses, razor blade handles and lampshades.

A second job does not have to feel like a burden

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