An experimental treatment may have just given a 3-year-old boy with advanced liver cancer a new lease on life.
Doctors at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and others detailed the near-miraculous turn of events in a report earlier this month. The boy’s metastatic cancer went into complete remission after receiving a novel form of immunotherapy—a remission that has lasted for at least a year. He’s part of an ongoing phase I trial that will test the treatment on dozens of other similar patients.
“This case shows that a durable complete remission in a patient with a chemotherapy-resistant solid tumor can be achieved entirely in the outpatient setting without systemic toxic effects,” the authors wrote in their paper, published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A new kind of CAR T
The boy was given a form of immunotherapy known as chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, T cell therapy. These cells, usually taken from the patient’s body, are genetically reprogrammed to express receptors that correspond to a specific target antigen. Once inside the body, these cells can then recognize and attack other cells carrying that antigen, namely cancer cells. They can also persist in the patient’s body, ideally providing a long term defense against the cancer returning.
CAR T cell therapy has emerged as a groundbreaking treatment for certain advanced blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma that would likely otherwise be fatal. Depending on the cancer, studies show between about 25% to 90% of people can respond well to CAR T.
Unfortunately, it’s proven much harder to create CAR T cells that can effectively kill solid tumor cancers. These cancers tend to be more complex, both in the antigens they present and in the defenses they have against the immune system. The study researchers are trying out an experimental type of CAR T that they believe can overcome these hurdles.
Their strategy is actually two-fold. The CAR T cells are engineered to target glypican-3, a protein that’s commonly seen on the surface of cancerous liver cells but not healthy mature ones. They’re also designed to express two different kinds of immune-related signaling proteins: interleukin-15 and interleukin-21. Research in animals has suggested that these two proteins working together can boost the cancer-fighting potency and survivablity of CAR T cells. The cells were also programmed with a safety switch gene that would allow doctors to quickly kill them off with another drug if needed.
The boy in this case had developed hepatoblastoma, the most common form of liver cancer, and the cancer had spread beyond his liver to his bones and lungs. Despite surgery and three lines of chemotherapy, it returned once again. Like many cases, the cancer tested positive for glypican-3.
The boy was given two infusions of CAR T cells, sourced from his own immune system, spaced eight weeks apart. After his first infusion, he showed signs of a partial response; after his second dose, the remaining cancer in his body appeared to dissipate completely. And as of the 12-month mark, the boy still seems to be cancer-free. Importantly, he also didn’t experience serious side-effects known to occur with CAR T, such as cytokine release syndrome (this syndrome basically sends the entire immune system into overdrive, which can be deadly).
The future of this treatment
This is of course only a single patient in an early stage trial. But the dramatic turnaround seen here is certainly a promising sign that the team’s strategy can pay off as hoped.
“This study provides evidence that these novel CAR T cells may be a safe and effective modality for hepatoblastoma and highlights the need for further assessment in patients with GPC3+ solid tumors,” Andras Heczey, the study’s author and pediatric oncologist, said in a statement from Baylor College of Medicine (Heczey was affiliated with Baylor at the study’s start but he is now with the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s hospital).
The boy is part of a larger trial dubbed the CARE study. It’s expected to enroll 18-30 patients with similar liver cancer cases, with the primary part of the trial scheduled to be completed by next summer. Other research teams are working on their own experimental CAR T treatments for solid tumor cancers.
CAR T has already changed the landscape of cancer care, and its full potential doesn’t seem to have been reached just yet.

WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – The Pennsylvania health department has requested emergency support ​from the US CDC as it grapples with one of the country’s largest and most deadly measles outbreaks, though with certain terms, according to a document reviewed ‌by Reuters on Thursday.
The request comes on condition that the federal agency recognize four measles-associated deaths reported by the state, raising the stakes in a dispute with the Trump administration.
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The state’s measles outbreak has become the focus of a standoff between US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat. Kennedy has cast doubt on whether deaths reported in US measles outbreaks since he took office were due to the virus or ​another cause, and instructed the CDC not to include the Pennsylvania fatalities in a national tally.
Disease experts say the move represented highly unusual interference by a health secretary in the determination ​by state health officials and could minimize the risks of measles in the eyes of the public. Kennedy has accused Shapiro of politicizing the ⁠outbreak in his state and of failing to request federal help.
In a letter sent to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Erica Schwartz on Wednesday evening, reviewed by Reuters, Pennsylvania secretary of ​health Debra Bogen said the state had begun the process to request emergency assistance from the CDC, known as Epi-Aid.
“The CDC’s choice not to publicly recognize the deaths undermines our response,” Bogen wrote. “For ​this reason, if CDC is unable to transparently and accurately communicate information about those measles-associated deaths, the Department will respectfully rescind our request for a CDC Epi-Aid.”
The request from the state health department comes after it had resisted CDC help, arguing it had the outbreak under control.
In a statement, HHS spokesperson Grace Davis Jamison said CDC had not received Pennsylvania’s request through “normal channels,” and that federal outbreak assistance is a separate issue from the way ​CDC chooses to tabulate fatality data.
“CDC will not submit to political blackmail that conditions critical public health assistance,” said Jamison.
GROWING OUTBREAK
When the Pennsylvania health department announced the first two measles-associated fatalities on August ​25, the disease had sickened 393 people across 28 counties. Shapiro praised his health department’s efforts to vaccinate more people, and the state health department opted not to ask the CDC to send personnel to help on ‌the ground.
Shapiro ⁠has criticized Kennedy, a long-time anti-vaccine activist who has promoted policies to reduce US childhood immunization, for amplifying public fears about vaccines without scientific evidence. Kennedy and Schwartz have blamed Shapiro for not accepting their offers of Epi-Aid, a form of short-term CDC assistance during public health emergencies. The agency sends experts to the site of a disease outbreak, typically for one to three weeks, to provide additional support to state and local health departments.
Pennsylvania’s outbreak has since ballooned, growing to more than 700 confirmed cases across 37 counties and four measles-associated deaths, according to the state health department. It is ​the latest state to grapple with the worst ​US resurgence of measles in more than ⁠three decades, fueled by rising vaccine hesitancy, and coincides with President Donald Trump’s return to office in early 2025.
The disease’s spread in Pennsylvania is accelerating and could be 10 times larger than the official numbers, said Matthew Ferrari, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Penn State. Still, ​the state’s caution on CDC deployment is understandable, Ferrari said, as it could cause more problems if state and federal political leadership are ​not aligned on an issue ⁠as critical as what counts as a measles-related death.
The state “doesn’t want someone coming in, giving them advice and also telling them that the things that they’re experiencing are not as severe as they’re seeing with their own eyes,” he said. If the CDC ultimately doesn’t provide more assistance, he said, public health experts from other states could help.
One of the fatalities announced this week occurred in Mifflin County, which now ⁠has the ​second-highest number of cases in the state and is located over 100 miles from the outbreak’s initial epicenter in Lancaster ​County. At the same time, the pace of measles vaccinations provided by the state appears to be slowing, according to health department data. In August, the health department administered over 3,500 doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which ​provides 97% protection against infection after two doses. For the first half of September, that number dropped to around 1,100 doses.
Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Dan Levine; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Nick Zieminski

The federal government approved updated Covid-19 vaccines for the 2026-27 respiratory virus season last month, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet made these vaccines available through a key federal program that covers access for about half of US children.
The Vaccines for Children program provides routine immunizations at no cost to children who are uninsured or underinsured or whose families may not otherwise be able to afford them. About half of US children are eligible for this program, which the CDC says is “one of the nation’s most important contributors to vaccine access.”
But it’s been three weeks since the US Food and Drug Administration approved the updated Covid-19 vaccines, and the CDC has not started the process for states and other jurisdictions to order them through Vaccines for Children. The delay was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Retail pharmacies have received both flu and Covid-19 shots for the new respiratory virus season. CVS started receiving Covid-19 vaccines for adults in early September, about a week after FDA approval, a spokesperson said. Pediatric vaccines — available in some pharmacy locations — began arriving last week. A pediatric Covid-19 vaccine would cost $149.99 out-of-pocket with no insurance coverage, CVS said.
Dr. Michelle Fiscus, chief medical officer of the Association of Immunization Managers, said there is always some delay between when seasonal vaccines are available commercially and when they are available through Vaccines for Children, but the “environment we’re currently living in” has raised anxiety for some about when access through the program will kick in.
“Either way, lack of vaccines in the field means parents can’t choose to protect their children and that some kids have access while others don’t,” she said in a message to CNN.
Flu vaccines had some manufacturer-related delays but are available commercially and through government programs.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services said the CDC is “finalizing decisions regarding COVID-19 vaccine procurement through the Vaccines for Children and Section 317 programs, and additional information will be available soon.” Section 317 of the Public Health Service Act is another avenue through which the federal government can support immunization, by providing grants to states to immunize underserved populations and other resources.
The spokesperson said Covid-19 “does not follow the same predictable seasonal pattern as influenza and other respiratory viruses,” with varying activity by region and increases throughout the year. “Accordingly, an arbitrary September date should not be treated as a public-health deadline for COVID-19 vaccine procurement,” the statement said.
But Covid-19 levels have been climbing for weeks. During the first week of September, Covid-19 accounted for a higher share of emergency department visits in the US than it had since February and more hospitalizations than there had been since March, according to data compiled by PopHIVE.
The HHS spokesperson also said that “HHS and CDC have a responsibility to ensure responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources and that vaccines procured through federally funded programs are appropriate for the populations those programs serve.”
The CDC hasn’t issued new recommendations for Covid-19 vaccines for this season. Last year, the agency updated Covid-19 vaccine guidance to shift away from a broad recommendation, instead saying that patients must consult with a healthcare provider to get the vaccine.
The American Medical Association and the University of Minnesota’s Vaccine Integrity Project released their own independent reviews of this fall’s vaccines this month. They recommend a Covid-19 vaccine for all infants between 6 months and 23 months of age, and children in certain high-risk groups or those whose families request vaccination.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) must formally vote to recommend a vaccine before it can be covered and distributed through the Vaccines for Children program, but the panel has been in disarray since March, when a federal judge temporarily blocked an HHS overhaul of the vaccine schedule and ruled that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to replace committee members last year did not follow federal legal procedures. ACIP hasn’t met since.
“For decades, our nation’s immunization system has helped ensure that every child can receive lifesaving vaccines, regardless of where they live, their family’s income, or their insurance status,” Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement.
“The Administration promised that changes to the federal vaccine process would not interfere with families’ ability to access recommended vaccines, yet that is exactly what is occurring,” he said. “Children cannot benefit from vaccines that are delayed or out of reach, and policymakers should be focused on removing obstacles, not creating new ones.”
In June, HHS filed a motion requesting that the courts expedite proceedings in the lawsuit affecting ACIP.
“Our policy changes preserved access and coverage. But the court’s order has left ACIP unable to carry out its core responsibilities,” Kennedy said in a post on X at the time. “As a result, the committee cannot issue new recommendations, review newly approved vaccines, or complete important work ahead of the fall flu season.
“Our appeal seeks to restore a functioning ACIP so the vaccine recommendation process can continue, and families, physicians, and public health programs have the guidance they need.”
Speaking Thursday at the conference of the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy acknowledged that litigation is continuing but repeated an argument he often makes: “We have not taken vaccines away from anyone.”

People who suffer from mild constipation may find some relief with a simple daily vinegar drink, new research suggests, even as experts urge more study and share cautions.
Constipation is a condition in which a person generally has fewer than three bowel movements a week, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Stools may also be hard, dry, or lumpy and difficult or painful to pass.
The NIH says adults should get 22 to 34 grams of fiber a day, depending on age and sex — though fewer than 10% of women and about 3% of men reach the recommended daily intake, according to federal dietary guidelines.
Left untreated, chronic constipation can lead to hemorrhoids and anal fissures and, in severe cases, complications such as fecal impaction that may require emergency care.
The NIH recommends changes to diet and lifestyle, such as increasing fiber intake with foods including legumes, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, as a first step in treating constipation — along with over-the-counter medicines if needed.
Now, a new study has found that consuming vinegar in liquid form may also increase bowel movements.
Published online in the journal Scientific Reports by Japanese researchers, the study reported that eating vinegar-based dishes more often was positively associated with better defecation status, though it remained unclear how much vinegar and its potentially active ingredient, acetic acid, were necessary to be effective.
“Given that acetic acid may play a key role in the effects of vinegar and that its intake can be strictly controlled, we conducted a randomized controlled trial in which healthy adults with mild constipation (defecation frequency of 3–5 times per week) consumed a vinegar beverage instead of vinegar-based dishes to investigate the effects of vinegar on defecation,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers randomly assigned a total of 44 participants — healthy Japanese adults between 20 and 69 years old — to consume either a beverage made with vinegar or a placebo drink at breakfast for four weeks.
The participants reported to have an average of three to five bowel movements a week, which the researchers classified as mild constipation.
The vinegar drink was made by mixing brewed vinegar with water, providing 750 milligrams of acetic acid in each 200-milliliter serving. The placebo used a small amount of citric acid instead of vinegar to give it a similar tart taste, so participants couldn’t tell which drink they had.
Both drinks were sweetened with sucralose and flavored with apple.
During the first week, the vinegar group showed trends toward improvement in bowel-movement frequency, number of defecation days, and stool volume compared with the placebo group.
By week four, defecation frequency was “significantly higher” in the vinegar group than in the placebo group — about 1.2 more bowel movements a week — the study concluded.
“These findings suggest that daily consumption of vinegar beverages may improve defecation status in healthy adults with mild constipation, supporting a potential dietary approach for maintaining bowel health,” the researchers wrote.
Both groups experienced gradual improvement over the course of the study — and the researchers suggested that some participants may have been habitually underhydrated, so the added daily drink may have played a part in relieving their constipation.
They noted, however, that during the first week, participants in the vinegar group showed signs of greater improvement than those in the placebo group, implying that vinegar or acetic acid may have had an additional early benefit.
Limitations of the study
The study is intriguing and “a promising clue rather than proof that vinegar treats constipation,” Florida-based registered dietitian Jamie Lee McIntyre, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
“I wouldn’t leap from this study to recommending apple cider vinegar shots for constipation,” she said. “The researchers used a standardized vinegar beverage containing a specific amount of acetic acid. They did not study typical apple cider vinegar supplements or concentrated vinegar shots.”
Mizkan Holdings Co. Ltd., a Japanese food company that manufactures vinegar, funded the study; three of the researchers were employed by Mizkan.
The scientists further noted that their findings “should be regarded as preliminary and require more confirmation in further studies.”
“For now, I’d stick with the constipation strategies we know have a stronger evidence base: adequate fiber and fluids, regular physical activity and a consistent bathroom routine,” McIntyre said.
“Vinegar can certainly be part of a meal, or serve as a wonderful base to a dressing or sauce, but I wouldn’t consider it a constipation treatment based on this one small study.”
Dr. Eric Shah, a gastroenterologist and clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan, told Fox News Digital that there “is this misnomer that drinking more water helps constipation, when it just makes most people have to urinate more.”
The key to avoiding constipation is to stay adequately hydrated, take soluble fiber, and consider pelvic floor physical therapy when needed, which is a growing field that is readily accessible from primary care, he said.
“What generally comes out of those water trials is that mineral-rich water, particularly magnesium-rich, tends to help more with constipation in clinical trials. The mineral content is probably more important than the volume of intake for most people.”
McIntyre added that “more vinegar isn’t necessarily better.”
“Because vinegar is highly acidic, drinking it regularly — particularly undiluted — can irritate the esophagus and contribute to dental enamel erosion,” she said.

As fall approaches, so does the risk of seasonal illness, though infection rates in Massachusetts and across the country remain “very low,” according to Sept. 11 data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, rates are starting to climb nationally, which means it will soon be time to get vaccinated for common illnesses like Influenza, COVID-19, and RSV.
Sabrina Assoumou, an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center and professor of medicine at Boston University, said the fall and winter bring more people inside, often in buildings with poor ventilation, where there is a higher risk of exposure to an infected person.
“Especially here in the Northeast, because it gets so cold, this is a season when we tend to spend more time indoors compared to other regions,” said Assoumou, who was part of the team that coordinated the City of Boston’s COVID-19 response.
This year, there are new vaccines to consider but far less guidance from the federal government, because the advisory committee that typically issues vaccine guidance is caught up in a court battle after the Trump administration began pulling back on some longstanding recommendations. States, medical societies, and other groups have stepped in to fill the void. Here’s what to know.
For the first time, there’s an mRNA flu vaccine on the market. On Aug. 5, Cambridge-based Moderna received FDA approval for its mFLUSIVA shots.
Standard flu vaccines use inactive flu viruses or pieces of a flu virus to stimulate an immune response and train the immune system to defend against influenza. mFLUSIVA uses a synthetic form of mRNA, the molecule that transports genetic information to parts of a cell, instructing it how to create proteins. When the vaccine is administered, the synthetic mRNA delivers genetic instructions that tell a cell to make a piece of the flu virus, teaching the immune system to recognize and destroy it. It’s the same technology used in the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.
“That technology can allow you to have a vaccine ready within a shorter period of time. That is very helpful, because it allows us more time to gather more data so that we can pick a version of the vaccine that’s going to be most helpful with whatever strains we’re seeing circulating closer to the start of flu season,” said Assoumou. “The more options we have, the better.”
mFLUSIVA, approved by the FDA for people 50 and older, was about 26.6 percent better at preventing flu in that age group compared to standard vaccines. But it was also more likely to cause adverse side effects like injection-site pain and muscle aches.
Paul Sax, clinical director of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that while mFLUSIVA is exciting for developers, it’s not guaranteed to be the best option for everyone.
“In my own opinion, the data on this flu vaccine [mFLUSIVA] are not particularly encouraging. It is about as effective, maybe slightly more effective, than the standard flu vaccine,” Sax said.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health and CDC recommend annual standard flu vaccines for everyone 6 months and older, unless they have a condition that makes vaccination inadvisable. This year, all three strains in the vaccine were updated, which “should mean pretty good protection,” according to epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina.
COVID rates in Massachusetts were “very low” as of Sept. 5, the most recent data available, according to the state’s department of public health. The CDC reported Sept. 11 that COVID-19 rates were elevated and increasing nationally, especially in Texas and Nevada, but that hospitalizations nationally remained low.
“It’s no longer the way it was in 2020 to 2022. Not even close,” Sax said. “The typical patient we see who’s sick enough to be hospitalized with COVID is either older, meaning in their 80s to 90s, or they have a lot of underlying medical problems that make the COVID infection destabilize them, or they’re immunocompromised.”
He continues to recommend boosters for people at risk for severe disease but says he considers it optional for younger, healthy adults.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which in the absence of federal guidance is following the combined recommendations of several medical groups, continues to advise anyone ages 6 months and older to get vaccinated. Children between 6 and 23 months of age who have already been vaccinated once are recommended to get another dose at least eight weeks later, and people over the age of 65 are recommended to receive two doses six months apart.
Several updated COVID-19 vaccines are available and appropriate for different age groups, according to the DPH: Moderna’s Spikevax for ages 6 months and older, and mNexspike for ages 12 and older; Pfizer’s Comirnaty for ages 5 and up; and Novavax’s Nuvaxovid, a non-mRNA vaccine that works similarly to standard flu shots, approved for adults 65 and older and people ages 12 to 64 at high risk for severe COVID. (The CDC has yet to release COVID vaccine guidance for fall 2026).
Typically, RSV season starts in October and lasts through March. It has mild effects in healthy children and adults but can be highly dangerous for infants younger than six months, the elderly, and people with other medical risk factors. Given the risk to young infants, pregnant women are recommended to receive a maternal RSV vaccine (Pfizer’s Abrysvo) during weeks 32 to 36 of pregnancy.
The Mass. Department of Public Health recommends RSV immunization for pregnant people between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy, infants younger than 8 months whose mothers were not vaccinated, children aged 8 to 19 months with certain risk factors, adults over 50 with certain risk factors, and all adults aged 75 and older.
Vaccinations are also available for pneumonia, an inflammation of the lungs that can be caused by the pneumococcus bacteria or by a viral infection and tends to spike in fall.
According to the CDC, the pneumococcal vaccination is effective in preventing bacterial pneumonia, as well as other conditions caused by the pneumococcus bacteria, such as meningitis. The CDC recommends the vaccine for children between two and five years and adults over 50 — the two groups at highest risk for severe pneumonia.
Because viral pneumonia can be caused by other viral infections like the flu, COVID-19, or RSV, the vaccines recommended for those viruses will be effective in preventing viral pneumonia.
Because the effectiveness of most seasonal vaccines wanes over time, experts say October appears to be the sweet spot to visit a local pharmacy or clinic to get your shot.
“I usually see Halloween as the cutoff point where you want to have completed all your vaccines against respiratory vaccines for the season. It’s just a good landmark,” Assoumou said. “I like to tell myself and my kids, ‘The flu and COVID are scary, so we need to make sure we’re vaccinated for the flu and COVID by Halloween!’”
The city of Boston is launching free vaccine clinics throughout the city starting Sept. 23.
Sax also named October as the month to aim for, and suggested an easy trick for remembering to get vaccinated.
“When you start seeing the big piles of Halloween candy everywhere in your pharmacy, that’s the time to get your shots,” Sax said. “And some candy, maybe.”