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Researchers in Cambridge are set to receive a £5m Cancer Research UK’s Catalyst Award to improve the early detection of cancers in GP surgeries. ̽»¨Ö±²¥CanTest team, led by Dr Fiona Walter from the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge, will work with researchers in three UK sites and across the globe on a five year project that will help GPs to detect cancers in a primary care setting, enabling patients to benefit from innovative approaches and new technologies, and reducing the burden of referrals.

Healthcare is a complex beast and too often problems arise that can put patients’ health – and in some cases, lives – at risk. A collaboration between the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research and the Department of Engineering hopes to get to the bottom of what’s going wrong – and to offer new ways of solving the problems.

Too many patients – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds – are being diagnosed with cancer as medical emergencies, say researchers. This means that their chances of successful treatment are greatly reduced.

​Does anxiety keep getting in the way of you making connections with the people you’d like to spend more time with? Maybe you’ve just met someone, but are worried that your anxiety will ruin it all. People with anxiety can be highly self-critical, tend to overestimate the likelihood that something negative will happen, and often feel that others are judging them.

Mental health has long been the Cinderella of healthcare: left to scrape an existence while the bulk of funding and attention goes elsewhere. As we mark World Mental Health Day, it is clear that policy makers and the public are coming to the realisation that there is no health without mental health. This shift is desperately needed.

Thirty-one new gene regions linked with blood pressure have been identified in one of the largest genetic studies of blood pressure to date, involving over 347,000 people, and jointly led by Queen Mary ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of London (QMUL) and the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge. 

Exposure to advertisements for e-cigarettes may decrease the perceived health risks of occasional tobacco smoking, suggests new research from the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge, prompting concern that this may lead more young people to experiment with smoking.

Pablo Monsivais (MRC Epidemiology Unit) and Annalijn I. Conklin ( ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of California, Los Angeles) discuss what sort of diet can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

A study of 3.9 million adults published today in ̽»¨Ö±²¥Lancet has found that being overweight or obese is associated with an increased risk of premature death. ̽»¨Ö±²¥risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer are all increased. Overall, the excess risk of premature death (before age 70) among those who are overweight or obese is about three times as great in men as in women.

Olivia Remes (Cambridge Institute of Public Health) discusses why women are almost twice as likely to experience anxiety as men.