Millions of people with breast cancer could safely avoid chemotherapy as scientists have developed a DNA test that can distinguish between patients who are likely to benefit from the treatment and those who are not, according to trial results.

The international study found that more than two-thirds of its participants could be spared the side of effects of chemotherapy and treated with hormone therapy alone.

Chemotherapy can cause fatigue, nausea, hair loss, a weakened immune system and fertility issues.

The study, led by University College London (UCL), involved more than 4,000 newly diagnosed patients over the age of 40 in the UK, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.

Scientists used a gene test called Prosigna to measure the activity of 50 genes involved in breast cancer growth and calculate a patient’s risk of the disease returning.

Those who received a low score – two-thirds of the group – were not treated through chemotherapy. The five-year survival rate of their group was 93.7%, compared with a 94.9% rate among patients who received chemotherapy as part of their care.

The primary treatment for breast cancer is usually surgery to remove tumours. Chemotherapy is often recommended afterwards to diminish the risk of return.

It is also regularly offered to people with early-stage breast cancer that has spread to the nearby lymph nodes.

Clinicians are concerned the treatment provides little benefit to those with the most common type of breast cancer, UCL said.

The university said more than 5,000 NHS patients a year could avoid chemotherapy as a result of the trial.

Karen Bonham, from Cardiff, took part in the trial and said the results are an “immense relief” and feel “like Christmas”.

The 64-year-old avoided chemotherapy thanks to the Prosigna test and has instead received radiotherapy and hormone therapy over eight years.

“Cancer diagnosis and treatment can be shocking,” she said.

“It certainly propels you into a world of uncertainty. Life priorities realign – you simply want to survive.”

The findings of the study will be presented at the world’s largest cancer conference, the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting, in Chicago, United States, on Saturday.

Professor David Miles, a leading cancer specialist, described the findings as “practice-changing”.

“We can now confidently predict many patients will get no benefit at all, and therefore there’s no need for them to have the chemotherapy,” he told BBC’s Newshour.

He added that the test would allow doctors to “confidently define a large population of women who simply aren’t going to benefit and don’t need to go through all that unpleasantness for no benefit at all.”

“We used to give chemotherapy to 100 women to benefit 10, knowing that 90 didn’t need it,” he said.

Tanya Hutson, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 and had chemotherapy as part of her treatment, called the new DNA test “absolutely amazing”.

“It just proves what happens when money is put into research,” she said, adding that chemotherapy had been “brutal”.

“For all these people out there who don’t need it but are still getting it – it’s an absolute game changer.”

It is not known whether the findings apply to people under the age of 40, with a result still several years away, according to UCL.

BBC

By the time you reach your eighth decade of life, the chances are that you’ll probably be feeling weaker, stiffer, and perhaps a little less cognitively sharp than in your younger years. Your sleep patterns might have changed so that you feel drowsier in the evenings and then wake earlier. Most concerningly, going by population averages, it’s likely that you will be dealing with at least one chronic health condition.

Yet researchers, now more than ever, are convinced that this is not an inevitability. “Based on what we now know, most people could expect to live to 90 or even 95 in good health if they were to optimise their lifestyle,” says Eric Verdin, president and chief executive of the Buck Institute for Research on Ageing in California. “And that’s very far from where we are, where most people live to 65 or 70 in good health, and then become ill and suffer all the indignities of old age.” 

While Verdin says that it’s never too late to improve your health at any age through making positive lifestyle adjustments, whether that’s exercising more, eating better or cutting back on alcohol, you will likely fare best if you start sooner. In particular, researchers have highlighted your 30s as a key decade when a number of physiological systems, whether that’s muscle mass and strength, bone density or metabolic regulation, begin to show the first subtle age-related changes.

“It does highlight this period as an important opportunity to reinforce behaviours that build long-term resilience,” says João Passos, a professor of physiology at the Mayo Clinic’s Kogod Center on Ageing, based in Minnesota.

To understand what might be possible, researchers studying the ageing process like to focus on groups of people who buck the ordinary trends. One example is masters athletes, individuals aged over 35 who still compete regularly in sporting competitions, whether that’s running, cycling or other sports, often continuing into their 60s and beyond.

Paul Morgan, a senior lecturer in nutrition and metabolism at Manchester Metropolitan University, notes that many of these athletes display a very different ageing trajectory to the rest of us, characterised by a higher peak in cardiovascular function and muscle strength and function, followed by a delayed decline. As a result, he says that many of them manage to avoid loss of mobility and independence for much longer in later life. “They have this additional reserve which acts as a protective barrier through the middle stages of life,” says Morgan. 

We can all learn from this. To give us the best chance of ageing well, Morgan says that we should aim to hit the highest peak that we can in our 30s, particularly when it comes to aerobic capacity (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise), flexibility, and muscle strength. 

One of the biggest risks for anyone over the age of 70 is tripping and falling, which is linked to a loss of agility and a decreased range of motion in the joints. “I always see the muscle groups in the lower limbs that are responsible for locomotion as having the biggest role to play in maintaining independence, and with that, good health in later life,” says Morgan. “So that’s especially important to focus on.” 

Playing sport is an excellent way to achieve this. Research has shown that taking part in racquet sports such as tennis or badminton has a consistent association with extended lifespan, while a 2025 Japanese study highlighted the benefits of cycling, with older adults who cycle regularly being less likely to need long-term care or die prematurely. 

Running for more than 75 minutes per week has also been found to slow certain aspects of the ageing process, but you might want to think again when it comes to running marathons. There is some evidence that pushing your body to extremes can actually accelerate some aspects of biological ageing, although this remains less well understood. 

On the other hand, one study found that as little as five minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day can help slow brain ageing, and according to Aditi Gurkar, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh in the US, we can all get some of the healthy ageing benefits through following relatively simple steps. “Even a brisk 15-minute walk after a meal can make a meaningful difference,” she says.

Building your brain’s reserve

Just as we can protect and strengthen our muscles and cardiovascular system in our 30s, we can also do the same for our brain. Maintaining good dental health through regular checkups, a good brushing routine, not smoking, and limiting intake of sugary foods can make a surprising difference. 

This is based on numerous studies which have repeatedly linked the development of periodontal disease, a gum condition characterised by elevated inflammation, with a heightened risk of cognitive decline in later life. This is thought to be due to the chronic impacts of systemic inflammation on the brain.

Your 30s could also be the decade to begin reducing your alcohol consumption. Drinking alcohol is linked to changes in gene expression in the body which accelerate ageing. Alcohol is also a key disruptor of sleep, and Verdin highlights consistent sleeping patterns as being key for avoiding age-related brain shrinkage and lowering dementia risk in decades to come. This includes making sure you go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, known as sleep regularity. Not only does sleep allow the body to focus on repairing cells, it also gives people the energy and motivation to pursue a healthy lifestyle.

“Even if you’re lacking sleep for one night, your metabolism changes, and your willpower to do all the things that are keeping you healthy goes away,” he says.

Because of the importance of maintaining a regular sleeping pattern, Verdin says he now uses an alarm clock each night – not to wake himself up, but to remind him to go to bed. “The reason for this is we’re circadian beings,” he says. “Our whole biology, from gene expression to metabolism is in synchrony with the 24-hour cycle, and so I tell people, going to bed at the same time each day helps your body to stay really well synchronised to all of this.” A good night’s sleep may not always be possible, however, as anyone raising young children in their 30s will know.

Finally, your 30s is probably a good time to begin taking nutrition a little more seriously. Verdin says that one of the best things we can do is to give our bodies more time during the day when we’re not actually eating, for example through intermittent fasting.

While many proponents of intermittent fasting recommend a so-called 16:8 split, where you fast for 16 hours of the day and compress your eating into an eight-hour window, Verdin says that we can achieve plenty of benefits through a more manageable 12:12 split. “Essentially when you’re fasting, that allows your body to focus not on digesting but on repairing,” he says. “I tell people, when you are eating, you are building. When you’re fasting, you are repairing.” 

Consuming more fruit and vegetables at the expense of ultra-processed foods could also make a difference. Gurkar points to work that she and others have carried out showing that people who ingest higher amounts of dietary carotenoids – plant chemicals found in vegetables such as sweet potatoes and carrots, and fruits like mango and apricots – age more slowly, possibly because these chemicals can play a role in protecting our cells from a form of damage called oxidative stress.

Overall, Passos is convinced that the choices we make in early adulthood can have a lasting impact on how we age. He points to large studies which have tracked tens of thousands of people in the US for decades, such as the Framingham Heart Study and the Nurses’ Health Study, which reveal that people who maintain healthier lifestyles in midlife have lower risks of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline and frailty – even decades later.

“By maintaining healthier behaviours in our 30s, we may prevent or delay subtle molecular and cellular changes that, if left unchecked, accumulate over time and contribute to functional decline in our 70s,” says Passos. “While I don’t believe that by doing this we can stop ageing, we can certainly shape its trajectory.”

While you may still feel somewhat invincible in your 30s, the steady tick of the ageing clock ultimately impacts us all. But if you cut out excessive alcohol, find a sport which you can keep playing into your latter years, set a regular sleeping pattern and give your body more breaks from constant eating, your heart, muscles, joints, and brain will all thank you in years to come.

BBC

Children are less physically active than they used to be. Scientists are now finding practical and effective ways to encourage children to move more. It could have lasting benefits on their health.

Globally children are less active than they used to be. That could end up having lasting effects on their health, scientists say. This inactivity comes amid rising obesity rates, with one in 10 children and adolescents living with the condition. Increased sedentary time, stress, the quality of food and lower levels of sports participation have all contributed.  

The good news is that understanding what makes children less active also presents opportunities to encourage them to move more, which will benefit them now and in the future. In fact, growing evidence now suggests there are practical and effective ways to do so, boosting their physical and cognitive health in the process.

Children should have 60 minutes of physical activity per day according to recommendations. Many do not meet them.

This can have lasting effects, as physical inactivity in childhood is linked to less activity in adulthood. Children that are more physically active are also more likely to be active as adults.

One longitudinal study following 712 World War Two veterans for 50 years found that participation in sports at high school was the strongest predictor for better health outcomes at 70, as well as being more physically active in older years. Those who played sports also had fewer visits to the doctor.

Numerous studies show similar effects. Exercise in childhood is linked to better long-term health too. Those who take part in youth sports have been shown to have a lower body mass index (BMI), smaller waist circumference and better mental health as well as better educational achievements and cognitive performance.

Cognitive benefits

Physical exercise benefits children in the moment too, says Nicole Logan an assistant professor of kinesiology from the University of Rhode Island in the US. “It improves body composition but also improves and maintains positive cognitive functions as children develop through adolescence,” she says. “If we do more physical activity, we increase our cardiorespiratory fitness and that is good for our brain as well.”

Given these benefits, there’s an increasing focus among researchers on helping children and adolescents sit less and move more, according to groups like the World Health Organization (WHO).

For instance, in one nine-month after-school exercise programme, Logan and colleagues found that children with obesity had better cognitive scores than those who were not part of the intervention. The activities took place after school and included moderate to vigorous activities five days per week.

This intervention was found to reduce body fat too, which is one reason cognition improved, Logan explains. That’s because fat stored around our vital organs can produce inflammation – which in turn is linked to poorer cognitive function, whilst aerobic fitness and physical activity shas been linked to better accuracy on complex tasks, better reaction times. and improved inhibitory control, which helps children resist impulsive reactions and is therefore key to concentration.

Logan proposes that schools should implement 60 minutes of movement per day, which would remove the burden on parents to facilitate access to sports (which can be expensive and time consuming).

Stopping stillness

Increasing physical activity doesn’t need to involve structured sports either. In a study in Massachusetts in the US, simply increasing the opportunities around physical activity before, during and after school, as well as giving children better access to healthy food, resulted in lower BMIs among elementary school children. About one quarter of these children had not taken part in any sports in the year prior to the study.

“The most effective way to actually help prevent obesity among children is to improve the food environment around children, promote physical activity and have rules around screen time,” says Ulla Toft, a clinical professor in the department of health at the University of Copenhagen who is undertaking a large-scale obesity intervention study in Denmark focusing on four key areas: diet, physical activity, screen use and sleep.

School-based interventions have shown promise too. One recent study which encouraged teachers to reduce sedentary time in 30 UK schools found 8% decline in waist-to-hip ratio (a measure of abdominal fat) among the children who took part, as well as a 10% increase in sports participation.

In the study, teachers were encouraged to ask children to stand when answering questions and to move around the classroom more than usual. “It wasn’t about exercise, but about sitting down less,” says Flaminia Ronca, from the University College London’s Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health and lead author of the study. As children sit for large parts of the school day, implementing creative ways of adding movement could improve health, she says.

Parental support

It’s unclear if this type of intervention will have long-term effects, but Ronca says fostering healthy behaviours early could have lasting benefits. In line with other studies, Ronca’s study also suggests that the more active children were, the faster they reacted on cognitive tasks involving attention and inhibitory control.

Follow up research found that a single 30-minute physical activity session also improved  children’s performance on a cognitive task.

Given that physical activity often decreases among adolescents, especially for girls, parental support can also increase participation. In one US survey of both children and their parents, girls whose parents encouraged them and helped them find opportunities to participate in sports, were more likely to persist.  

Similarly, as children often learn from the adults around them, research has shown that children are more likely to be physically active if their parents are active too – as well as if parents exercise with their children. This could be as simple as a bike ride in the local park or a short jog together.  

Increased confidence

Another way to increase physical activity is to consider how children feel when they are moving.

Michaela James from Swansea University’s medical school in the UK has found that when children feel confident and competent around movement, it increases their wellbeing. She has found that many schools focus heavily on structured physical activities, which can leave some children to feel excluded and can affect their confidence.

Giving children more choice over what activities they do could be life-changing she says. “It could be quite chaotic to hand over power to young people and say, ‘just go with it’ but I think that plays a massive part in raising kind and compassionate humans.”

Increasing unstructured play should be simple to enact too, by encouraging active movement breaks and ensuring that break times are not removed as punishment, which has been used by some schools as a behavioural intervention.

In line with this, designing playgrounds more creatively to encourage free play, using objects like crates, tyres or wooden pallets could help increase activity levels too.

And crucially, we need to recognise that all movement is valuable, say James, whether climbing a tree, running around a playground or playing tag. “It’s all about valuing what children want to be able to do,” she says.

BBC