A personalized cancer vaccine is in the works
Melanoma, a relatively rare skin cancer that affects pigment-producing cells, is one of the most serious forms of skin cancer.
This year, pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck announced that some clinical trial patients with stage 3 and 4 melanoma (meaning the cancer has spread beyond the original site) had a lower risk of cancer recurrence when treated with an experimental vaccine known as mRNA-4157/V940.
The vaccine, which is a snippet of messenger RNA personalized using a patient’s own tumor cells, is designed to help the body detect and fight melanoma.
In the trial, the vaccine was combined with another cancer treatment called Keytruda, a therapy that builds the body’s immune system response.
Although it must pass many hurdles before it’s approved for use, the combination of the vaccine and Keytruda appeared to reduce the risk of recurrence or death by 44% compared to people treated with Keytruda alone in the clinical trial.
The trial included 157 patients who were treated after undergoing surgery. About 14% of people undergoing the treatment had serious side effects in the trial, compared with 10% treated with Keytruda alone.
CVS lowered tampon prices in states that didn’t abolish the “pink tax”
The “pink tax” is a term used to describe extra costs of products marketed mostly to women compared with those marketed towards men.
These extra costs can make certain items like deodorant and razors 13% more expensive. In some states there are also markups or state taxes on products used only by people who menstruate, also known as the “tampon tax.”
Nebraska, Colorado, and Iowa ended their taxes on menstrual products in 2022. Other states, like Virginia, will remove sales tax on menstrual products starting in 2023.
In response, CVS reduced prices on all CVS–brand period products in the 12 states that tax menstrual products, such as tampons, pads, cups, liners, heatwraps, and PMS relief medicine.
On Oct. 5, CVS began covering sales tax for those products in Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
TikTokers pushed back against the buccal fat removal trend with love for “round face and baby face girlies”
Buccal fat removal is an irreversible procedure in which a plastic surgeon removes fat from the cheeks to create a more sculpted facial structure. The trend made its way to social media, and a tweet that had more than 16,000 likes speculated that actors like Zoë Kravitz, Lea Michele, and others have had the procedure, although none of these celebrities have confirmed this. Chrissy Teigen has said she had the procedure and has no regrets.
People on social media began to push back at the procedure, instead emphasizing the beauty of round face shapes. TikTokers also shared videos about their own cheeks, calling round faces “the universal friend face.”
“I’m genuinely getting so tired of our bodies being seen as trendy or not,” one user said. “It was one of my insecurities and now this is making me feel better about it thank you,” another commented.