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Deaths from drug overdose are rising worldwide, in part owing to the growing epidemic of opioid addiction. Efforts to combat opioid addiction will benefit from stronger collaboration between preclinical researchers who are studying addiction and those studying chronic pain.
Cancer research has made great strides in identifying effective therapies for treating advanced-stage tumors. The next challenge is moving the battle to earlier stages of disease.
Proposed US budget cuts and the impending exit of the UK from the European Union have the potential to destabilize the global biomedical-research enterprise. In the meantime, the uncertainty of not knowing just how bad the effects will be will inflict its own damage.
President Donald Trump's call to speed up drug approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) overlooks the fact that the agency has become faster over the past two decades. When considering changes to the drug-approval process, we should instead increase our investment in the many years of research that precede approval.
The scientific process relies on people's willingness to publish data-driven findings. Turning to the legal system to adjudicate the merit of evidence-based assertions in the scientific literature leads us down a dangerous path.
Immune-related adverse effects are understudied and not easily treatable risks of cancer immunotherapy. Concerted research efforts to understand the mechanisms of immunotherapy-triggered responses are crucial for developing better treatments.