Health
22 health care predictions for 2025 from medical researchers
2024 was packed with health care innovations, from a new blood test detecting Alzheimer’s disease to deep brain stimulation reversing paralysis.
Heading into the New Year, medical experts are predicting even more medical advances for 2025.
Researchers from Mass General Brigham, a health care system in Boston, Massachusetts, shared with Fox News Digital some of the scientific developments and breakthroughs they expect to see, which are also published on the hospital’s website.
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5 cancer predictions
1. “I anticipate we are going to see continued breakthroughs and growth in immunotherapy for cancer, particularly with FDA approvals and commercialization of cell therapies for solid tumors. The field is also poised to make great strides in using these technologies for other conditions, like autoimmune diseases.”
Bryan Choi, MD, PhD
Investigator, Department of Neurosurgery
Massachusetts General Hospital
Heading into the New Year, medical experts from Mass General Brigham are predicting many new medical advances for 2025. (iStock)
2. “I predict novel discoveries and innovative strategies for early cancer detection and prevention will dramatically impact patient care in the coming year. With the proven success of immunotherapy for cancer treatment, there is an emerging interest in utilizing the patient’s own immune system for cancer prevention, especially in high-risk populations. This area of research is expanding rapidly and will likely generate actionable targets for investigations in patients.”
Shawn Demehri, MD, PhD
Investigator, Mass General Cancer Center
Massachusetts General Hospital
3. “The current standard for treating patients with clinical stage 2 or 3 triple-negative breast cancer is to administer chemotherapy in addition to immunotherapy prior to surgery. This combination therapy leads to a better response than chemotherapy alone. However, immunotherapy comes with added toxicities that can lead to lifelong complications.”
Researchers expect that 2025 will include an “important step in further personalizing breast cancer care and reducing long-term side effects.” (iStock)
“In 2025, I anticipate significant progress will be made in identifying biomarkers in a patient’s peripheral immune system that will help determine which patients require the addition of immunotherapy and those who will do well with chemotherapy alone. This would be an important step in further personalizing breast cancer care and reducing long-term side effects.”
Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, PhD, MHCM
Investigator, Department of Surgery
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
4. “In basic research, single-cell technologies have been advancing at an accelerated pace. In 2025, I believe we will likely see major breakthroughs in spatial transcriptomics and sub-cellular high-resolution imaging, particularly in the context of embryo development and understanding of cancer progression and resistance.”
Raul Mostoslavsky, PhD
Investigator, Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research
Massachusetts General Hospital
“I predict novel discoveries and innovative strategies for early cancer detection and cancer prevention will dramatically impact patient care.”
5. “I believe we will see a greater focus on the long-term impact of multiple environmental factors on disease states, such as cancer development processes. There is a misconception that many non-hereditary diseases, such as non-hereditary cancer, are the result of short-term risk factor exposure. I think that research in the coming year will shift focus on the long-term impacts of multiple disease-causing factors.”
Shuji Ogino, MD, PhD, MS
Chief of Molecular Pathological Epidemiology Program, Department of Pathology
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
6 neurology predictions
1. “I anticipate we’ll see an uptick in usage of artificial intelligence (AI) to support physicians while they care for patients, streamline workflows, and improve diagnostics and treatments in 2025. We’re also likely to see expanded use of robotics and AI in complex surgeries, particularly for brain and spine procedures.”
E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, FAANS
Executive Director, Center for Tumors of the Nervous System
Mass General Brigham
1. “I anticipate we’ll see an uptick in usage of artificial intelligence to support physicians while they care for patients, streamline workflows, and improve diagnostics and treatments in 2025,” one neurologist said. (iStock)
2. “I predict that advances in non-invasive brain stimulation will change how we care for patients with brain disease, including accelerated protocols that improve symptoms in days rather than weeks, personalized protocols that target the most bothersome symptom in each patient, and at-home devices that make brain stimulation accessible to more patients.”
Michael Fox, MD, PhD
Director, Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
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3. “Advances in focused ultrasound technology offer the potential for non-invasive, targeted, and temporary opening of the blood-brain barrier. This could allow therapies that were previously ineffective — due to their inability to cross the blood-brain barrier to reach their target in the central nervous system — to directly target tissues. I think we will see a breakthrough in this area of research in the next year, enabling treatments for a wide range of brain disorders, including neurological, psychiatric and neurosurgical conditions.”
Alexandra Golby, MD
Investigator, Neurosciences Center
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
4. “Starting in 2025, it will become possible to administer transcranial magnetic stimulation to treat depression over the course of just days instead of weeks, which, aided by pharmacological co-agents, will still lead to a very high remission rate in treatment-resistant patients.”
Andreas Horn, MD, PhD
Director, Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
“I predict that advances in non-invasive brain stimulation will change how we care for patients with brain disease,” one doctor said. (BrainsWay)
5. “I predict that the prevention of dementia, stroke and depression will become a cornerstone of patient-directed primary care. In 2024, we saw the publication of several high-impact validation studies of the Brain Care Score (BCS), a tool designed to help people everywhere use the most robust science to guide their daily lifestyle choices and reduce their risk of dementia, stroke and depression by up to 50%. In parallel, we have laid the groundwork to empower people everywhere to use the BCS routinely, and to bring it with them to their next primary care visit with a health care provider.”
Jonathan Rosand, MD, MSc
JP Kistler Endowed Chair in Neurology
Co-Founder, McCance Center for Brain Health
Massachusetts General Hospital
“I envision that in 2025, the discovery of molecular biomarkers will shift the care paradigm to a more proactive approach. “
6. “I foresee advances on several fronts of dementia care as a major theme for health care in 2025. This includes AI-assisted approaches to improve early diagnosis, novel ways of delivering personalized treatments, and advances in care delivery as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-developed GUIDE (Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience) Model of Care is implemented nationwide. I also predict that caregiving for persons with dementia will gain further recognition as a major element of health care, requiring more resources and attention.”
Ipsit V. Vahia, MD
Investigator, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry
McLean Hospital
5 cardiology predictions
1. “I believe in 2025 we can expect to see the completion of the first large outcomes-focused clinical trial from a group of new medications that target lipoprotein(a), a unique type of ‘bad cholesterol’ that increases a patient’s risk for cardiovascular disease. Up to this point, the treatment paradigm for patients with elevated lipoprotein(a) has been to aggressively modify other risk factors, but we may soon have more targeted treatment options.”
Michael Honigberg, MD, MPP
Investigator, Cardiology Division
Massachusetts General Hospital
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2. “Cardiac critical care has transformed into its own discipline, but remains largely reactive to treating patients as they become sicker. I envision that in 2025, the discovery of molecular biomarkers will shift the care paradigm to a more proactive approach. Molecular biomarkers may help us identify patients most at risk of disease and start interventions earlier, maybe even preventively.”
Edy Kim, MD, PhD
Investigator, Pulmonary Division
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
3. “I predict that in 2025, we will see significant advancements in women’s health research. In particular, I hope to see major breakthroughs that improve quality of life and cardiovascular health in mid-life/menopausal women, a group that has been historically underappreciated.”
Emily S. Lau, MD, MPH
Investigator, Cardiometabolic Health and Hormones Clinic
Massachusetts General Hospital
“In 2025, I anticipate significant progress will be made in identifying biomarkers in a patient’s peripheral immune system that will help determine which patients require the addition of immunotherapy and those who will do well with chemotherapy alone,” one doctor said. (iStock)
4. “In 2025, I anticipate we will see the introduction of two intertwined advances. First, the integration of artificial intelligence-facilitated algorithms for the early detection of cardiovascular illness, which will move us closer toward early prevention. We also envision a focus on using genetically informed treatments to reduce the risk of atherosclerotic heart disease, valvular heart disease and heart failure. Together, these important advances will usher in an era of personalized health care in cardiovascular disease.”
Mandeep R. Mehra, MBBS, MSc
Executive Director, Center for Advanced Heart Disease
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
5. “In the coming year, I anticipate a marked increase in focus on cardio-kidney-metabolic health, necessitating new patient-centered models of interdisciplinary care.”
Pradeep Natarajan, MD, MMSc
Director, Preventive Cardiology
Massachusetts General Hospital
6 general scientific predictions
1. “In 2025, I believe we will uncover the answers to remaining questions about nutrient metabolism and why a calorie is not a calorie, thereby improving our understanding of why some people gain weight.”
Caroline Apovian, MD
Co-Director, Center for Weight Management and Wellness
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
“In 2025, I believe we will uncover the answers to remaining questions about nutrient metabolism and why a calorie is not a calorie, thereby improving our understanding of why some people gain weight,” a doctor predicted. (iStock)
2. “In the coming year, I see artificial intelligence being integrated more into health care as a supplement to physician knowledge and intuition. With the amount of biomedical data we are generating, I predict AI tools will improve our ability to interpret and apply the most salient information to individual patients, resulting in a personalized approach to patient care. I also predict that AI will continue to greatly reduce the administrative burden on providers and enable them to spend more time with their patients.”
William Hwang, MD, PhD
Investigator, Center for Systems Biology, Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research, Department of Radiation Oncology
Massachusetts General Hospital
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3. “I think in 2025, we will see the implementation of generative artificial intelligence language models (i.e., chatbots) for some aspects of routine clinical care, such as the preparation of patient communications, generation of preliminary diagnostic test reports, or summarization of patient medical records.”
Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH
Investigator, Telemachus and Irene Demoulas Family Foundation Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias
Massachusetts General Hospital
Artificial intelligence is expected to play a big role in the 2025 health landscape. (iStock)
4. “In 2025, I think we will recognize the power of drones and begin to use them to transform the way we deliver health care by making the home the center of care. Drone-facilitated care will impact primary care, urgent and emergency care, and even enable public health leaps by bringing care directly to patients in ways we never thought possible (or maybe thought were possible only for the Jetsons).”
David Levine, MD, MPH, MA
Clinical Director of Research and Development
Mass General Brigham
“I believe in 2025, we will see many more patients benefiting from genetic therapies.”
5. “Increased access to emerging technologies and personalized data, combined with information specifically tailored for the individual, will drive self-care in health and wellness in more patients, initially in preventative medicine, in the next year. This phenomenon will begin to impact chronic disease management and progressively more complex conditions and will accelerate devolution of care and responsibility for many conditions to the patient — who is often best placed to understand their own health.”
Calum A. MacRae, MD, PhD
Vice Chair for Scientific Innovation
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
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6. “Treatments for rare genetic diseases are rapidly being translated to clinics. With close to 40 gene and cell therapies approved and hundreds expected to come down the pipeline, I believe that in 2025, we will see many more patients benefiting from genetic therapies.”
Susan A. Slaugenhaupt, PhD
Scientific Director, Mass General Research Institute
Massachusetts General Hospital
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A new injectable therapy is showing positive results in reducing melanoma throughout a five-year period.
The personalized mRNA cancer therapy, called intismeran autogene, combined with the cancer immunotherapy drug KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), is a collaboration between Merck and Moderna.
The results from the phase 2b KEYNOTE-942 study were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 27.
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After about a five-year follow-up, the combo drug was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone.
The researchers analyzed data from 157 patients with high-risk stage 3 and 4 melanoma whose cancer had been removed via surgery. The participants were split into two groups — one received the combo therapy and the other only received pembrolizumab, according to a press release.
The therapy was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone after a five-year follow-up. (iStock)
The findings revealed that the combination group saw benefits that were “sustained and durable over time.”
Intismeran autogene is designed using mutations identified in a patient’s own tumor, with the intention of teaching the immune system what the cancer looks like so that it can recognize and attack it.
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According to the researchers, intismeran is “well-tolerated” with a “manageable” safety profile.
The most commonly cited side effects of the personalized mRNA vaccine plus KEYTRUDA were fatigue, injection-site pain, chills, fever and headache. The researchers reported no new long-term safety concerns and no severe vaccine-related adverse events.
The combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study — the final confirmation stage.
Patients with late-stage melanoma have a “significant risk” of cancer recurrence, according to an expert. (iStock)
In a Merck press release from January, Kyle Holen, MD, Moderna’s senior vice president and head of development, oncology and therapeutics, noted that this data highlights the “potential of a prolonged benefit … in patients with resected high-risk melanoma.”
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“We continue to invest in our platform in oncology because of encouraging outcomes like these, which illustrate mRNA’s potential in cancer care,” he said.
Dr. Marjorie Green, senior vice president and head of oncology, global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories, also commented that for many patients with stage 3 or 4 melanoma, there is a “significant risk of recurrence following surgery.”
Researchers confirmed that the combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study. (iStock)
“As such, demonstrating the longer-term potential of intismeran autogene and KEYTRUDA to reduce the risk of recurrence for certain patients with melanoma is a meaningful milestone,” she said.
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The company cited encouraging five-year follow-up data and pointed to upcoming late-stage INTerpath trial results with Moderna in several hard-to-treat cancers.
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An accidental lab discovery has opened the door to entirely new ways of preventing the flu.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells, SWNS reported.
By targeting the specific molecules the viruses rely on, scientists found that they could block them from entering new cells and halt their replication altogether.
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Researchers say these “fundamental insights” into seasonal influenza highlight a clear path toward developing better preventive medications.
“The hope is that fundamental, curiosity-based research like this helps to pave the way for novel strategies to treat and prevent influenza infections,” principal investigator Dr. Emily Bruce, from the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, said in the SWNS report.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells. (iStock)
While several flu strains cause illness, H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses are the most common. However, current flu tests cannot differentiate between them, and clinical treatments are identical for both.
Although vaccines and antivirals are available, Bruce noted a “dire” need for better medications to stop the virus from spreading cell to xxcell.
“You don’t get sick when a virus is in one cell,” he noted. “You get sick because a virus replicates itself and goes into many more cells.”
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The study, which was published in The Journal of Virology, originally aimed to map how viral RNA segments are transported within cells to create new viral particles.
The team used H1N1 and H3N2 viruses isolated from the nasal passages of positive patients in 2022.
Clinical treatments remain identical for both primary strains of the flu virus. (iStock)
During the investigation, the team unexpectedly stumbled upon a cellular pathway that blocked the virus from entering lung cells, SWNS reported.
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The data revealed that when a specific human protein called Rab11B was depleted, H3N2 viruses failed to enter human lung cells. H1N1 viruses were completely unaffected.
Using reverse genetics, the team mapped this defect and uncovered a brand-new, H3N2-specific role for Rab11B during viral entry.
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This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way.
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“Viruses are like pirates from different countries hijacking someone’s ship,” Bruce said. “Different viruses, like different types of pirates, use different methods to get onboard.”
This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way. (iStock)
“We had previously thought that all flu viruses used the same way to get into a cell, but we discovered that this is not true,” she went on. “H1N1 and H3N2 need different proteins to get in, and if you get rid of the right protein, a specific virus can’t get in.”
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While these findings identify a critical cellular pathway for viral entry, the study was conducted using isolated cells, the researchers acknowledged.
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Further research is needed to determine whether blocking the protein is safe and effective within a live, complex human respiratory system.
Bruce and the team hope to conduct further research to determine whether this Rab11B-dependency is a fundamental property of H3N2, or if it’s a trait unique to currently circulating flu strains.
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Eating processed meat like ham, sausage and bacon may be linked to a higher risk of certain types of cancer, according to new research.
While health organizations have already confirmed that processed meat can contribute to colon cancer, this study looked closer at cancers in the upper digestive tract, where the link has historically been less clear.
To understand these connections, researchers from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), one of the world’s largest long-term nutrition and cancer cohorts, tracked the health and diets of 450,112 people across Europe for an average of 14 years.
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The study group included 131,426 men and 318,686 women, according to the study’s press release.
During the follow-up period, 876 people developed stomach cancer and 215 people developed esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is cancer of the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.
For female participants, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk of developing the disease. (iStock)
Researchers tracked where the stomach cancers grew, separating them into the upper part of the stomach near the throat and the lower part of the stomach.
The researchers also sorted the tumors into two categories based on how the cancer cells appeared under a microscope: intestinal, which forms more organized structures, and diffuse, in which the cells are more scattered throughout the tissue.
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After adjusting for other lifestyle factors, the researchers found that for every extra 30 grams of processed meat a person ate per day, their overall risk of stomach cancer went up by 9%. Eating that same extra 30 grams a day was also linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma.
A standard single slice of regular deli-sliced ham or lunch meat averages around 28 grams, according to USDA data and nutritional tracking databases.
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken and turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach. (iStock)
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken or turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach, the researchers noted.
The study also revealed differences between men and women. For male participants, only processed meat showed a clear, statistically significant link to a higher risk of stomach cancer. For female participants, however, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk.
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These findings align with global health benchmarks, particularly those established by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The agency has long classified processed meat as a known human carcinogen, primarily due to its strong, well-documented links to colorectal cancer.
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However, health organizations have also consistently pointed to a potential, yet less definitive, relationship between these meats and cancers of the stomach.
Eating 30 grams of processed meat a day, or the equivalent to one slice of ham, was linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. (iStock)
Further scientific investigation is needed to confirm the findings and to account for other underlying risk factors, such as certain stomach infections, which could interact with dietary habits.
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A key limitation of the study is its reliance on self-reported diets, which can sometimes lead to inaccuracies in how participants recall their meat consumption over time, the researchers noted.
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The findings were published in the International Journal of Cancer.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers requesting comment.
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