• Illinois: According to a new study published in JAMA Network Open, deaths from alcohol-related liver disease nearly doubled over the last two decades, up from 6.7 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999 to 12.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2022. Between 2006 and 2018, the annual percentage change in alcohol-associated liver disease deaths increased by 3.5%, but between 2018 and 2022, it increased annually by almost 9%. According to health experts, this increase may partially be due to the pandemic since people were drinking more during that time. Although men continue to have higher alcohol-related liver disease death rates than women, women had a higher annual percentage increase (4.3%) than men (2.5%). Young adults between the ages of 25 and 44 also had the highest annual percentage change in mortality at 4.2%. The group with the highest overall death rates from alcohol-related liver disease were American Indian and Alaska Native adults at 47 deaths per 100,000 in 2022, an increase from 25 per 100,000 in 1999. "The gap and the disparities even became larger, and they still remain," said Nasim Maleki, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "The pandemic itself came under control, but the disparities that came with it continued and lingered." (Reed, Axios, 6/12; Cueto, STAT, 6/11)
• Maryland: FDA has granted de novo authorization to an AI program that analyzes mammograms to predict patients' future risk of breast cancer. In a study of over 57,000 women, the program, called Clairity Breast, was able to detect 8.6 cancers per 1,000 patients, compared to 4.4 and 3.8 cancers per 1,000 with other risk models. According to Larry Norton, a breast cancer specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and scientific director at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Clairity Breast can provide clinicians with information to help them determine if additional imaging, such as breast MRI, is needed. It could also help improve patient adherence to recommendations for screening mammography. "Not everyone is very reliable about getting annual mammograms," Norton said. "This test can provide additional encouragement. I think it's going to be very useful in prevention strategies. For example, if a mammogram indicates a high likelihood of breast cancer at a later date, can interventions reduce that risk? That's something that I think we're all going to be exploring very seriously." (Bankhead, MedPage Today, 6/2)
• Massachusetts: Scholar Rock recently announced that its investigational therapy apitegromab could help patients taking GLP-1 weight-loss drugs preserve lean muscle mass. Apitegromab is an antibody that blocks myostatin, a protein that regulates muscle mass, and FDA is currently reviewing it as a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy. In a Phase 2 trial of 100 patients, researchers tested apitegromab in combination with Eli Lilly's GLP-1 drug Zepbound. Over 24 weeks, patients who took apitegromab and Zepbound lost 12.3% of their body weight, 14.6% of which was lean mass and 85.3% of which was fat mass. In comparison, patients who took a placebo and Zepbound lost 13.4% of their weight, 30.2% of which was lean mass and 69.5% of which was fat mass. According to Scholar Rock, apitegromab showed "a well tolerated and encouraging safety profile" that was consistent with prior studies. (Chen, STAT+ [subscription required], 6/18)

While every expert agrees that drinking too much alcohol is unhealthy, the amount of alcohol the average person can safely consume has long been debated, with many experts saying the decision ultimately comes down to a person's risk tolerance, Karen Weintraub reports for USA Today.