People who are diagnosed with head and neck cancer often receive a standard type of chemotherapy as part of their treatment. If they are exposed to secondhand smoke during chemotherapy — even if they have never smoked themselves — the treatment may be far less effective at killing cancer cells. That finding, considered the first of its kind, was revealed in a study recently published by researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences.

In a study of patients who smoked when they were diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, those who quit smoking before starting chemotherapy or radiation responded better to treatment, were less likely to need their voice boxes surgically removed, and lived significantly longer than those who continued to smoke. The research, from the University of Oklahoma, is published in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Research increasingly suggests that when a woman with obesity becomes pregnant, a process of “fetal reprogramming” increases the risk that her baby will face problems like obesity, Type 2 diabetes and liver disease earlier in life. To better understand how that reprogramming occurs, University of Oklahoma researchers recently earned a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. They also will study whether an antioxidant called PQQ given to the mother can lower the risk of future metabolic problems for her offspring.

Dr. Nancy Halliday, a David Ross Boyd Professor in the Department of Cell Biology in the College of Medicine has been named the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine’s 2024 Stanton L. Young Master Teacher.

An innovative new field of research holds the promise for pediatric cardiologists and heart surgeons to predict the future structural integrity of a child’s heart valves so they can perform the best possible surgery today. At the University of Oklahoma, a pediatric heart surgeon and cardiologist are collaborating with a biomedical engineer in a type of research that few in the nation are doing.