KCU Joplin expands facilities with major donation
It's the largest donation in the history of KCU, more than 20-million dollars from the estate of Dr. Paul and Mary Dybedal.
The donation will increase the Mary L. Dybedal Scholarship fund, establish a Chair of Psychiatry endowment, expand the Kansas City campus's research facilities, and build state-of-the-art labs in Joplin.
KCU Joplin Vice President Dr. Rick Schooler says supporting research will make students more competitive when applying for residencies, and help them make better decisions as doctors.
'It's very important to us to be able to contribute to the science of health, to help continue to advance health care and health practice. At the same time, it's very important for our students to have the opportunity to get involved with research as they're going through our professional programs,' said Dr. Rick Schooler, KCU Joplin Vice President.
A 2004 donation from the Dybedals allowed KCU to open the Dybedal Center for Research in 2006.
Dr. Dybedal graduated from KCU in 1954, and served on the Board of Trustees for more than 36 years.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Fox News
7 hours ago
- Fox News
Common sweetener could hold untapped potential to fight aggressive cancer, study finds
A household sweetener could hold the potential to create an anti-cancer treatment. New research from Hiroshima University in Japan revealed that stevia leaf extract could help fight pancreatic cancer cells. The leaves of the stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana) are used to make stevia extract, a naturally sweet substance commonly used as a sugar substitute. The study, published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, investigated the anti-cancer properties of stevia leaf extract when it is fermented with a certain strain of bacteria. In laboratory research, the fermented extract exhibited "significantly enhanced antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity" against pancreatic cancer cells, the researchers revealed. This led them to believe that this substance could serve as a "promising candidate for pancreatic cancer treatment." Paul E. Oberstein, M.D., medical oncologist and assistant director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center at NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, shared his thoughts in an interview with Fox News Digital. "This is an interesting study because it evaluated something derived from a natural plant (stevia) and showed that it may have utility in stopping cancer cells from growing in the laboratory," he said. "As the authors point out, the actual stevia plant does not seem to have any benefit for stopping cancer, so they had to use a chemical process to change the plant and make it stronger with a fermentation process." "This is the process of how we discover new treatments – some of which turn out to be absolute game-changers." Oberstein recommended approaching this with caution, as it is unknown whether altering the plant will lead to side effects or toxicity. The study was not performed on humans, so there is "still a lot that's unknown about whether this will help patients," the oncologist added. As stevia extract alone does not have an impact on cancer cells, Oberstein said these findings most likely will not lead to any immediate changes in treatment plans. "The study suggests that if the stevia can be changed in the lab, it may have an impact, so hopefully they will further test this and determine whether this effect happens when tested in people and if it doesn't cause new side effects," he added. "I hope the researchers keep testing this in various formats and in people." Dr. Kristen Arnold, a surgical oncologist and pancreatic cancer specialist at the Orlando Health Cancer Institute, reacted to these study findings in a separate interview with Fox News Digital. "Pancreatic cancer is a very aggressive malignancy," she said. "And we know that even with the most aggressive of therapies, unfortunately, our outcomes are not good." "As a pancreatic cancer community, we spend a lot of time and there's a lot of ongoing effort into trying to find better modalities to treat this disease." Although more research is needed to confirm these preliminary findings, Arnold said she is encouraged by the study. "I think the data's very early to know if it's ultimately going to be a game-changer, but it's very exciting to know that we're finding some positive pre-clinical data," she said. "This is the process of how we discover new treatments – some of which turn out to be absolute game-changers and make dramatic changes in the lives of our patients." "Not all of it pans out, but it's a process of discovery," Arnold added. For those with pancreatic cancer, Arnold recommends seeking out appropriate clinical trial opportunities as new science develops. "The clinical trials are ultimately what determine how we treat patients on a day-to-day basis," she added. Fox News Digital reached out to the study authors for comment.
4 days ago
A famine hasn't been declared in Gaza, but that may not matter, experts say
For months, humanitarian aid organizations and international bodies have warned that Gaza is facing " critical" levels of hunger and that famine is " imminent" in parts of the Gaza Strip. An increasing number of deaths due to malnutrition have also been reported and gut-wrenching images have emerged of suffering children and long food lines. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, 14 people have died of hunger over a 24-hour period as of Monday, bringing the total number of deaths from that cause to 147 since Oct. 7, 2023. Of the total deaths due to hunger, at least 88 have been children, according to the Health Ministry. Additionally, a recent international report found the "worst-case scenario of famine" is unfolding in Gaza. However, there has been no official determination or declaration of famine, which has led to political sparring about whether one exists Humanitarian workers and food security experts told ABC News that an official declaration may not matter. There are no legal obligations from countries or international organizations when a famine is determined, and it is merely a sign that the food insecurity in an area is the worst it can be. Additionally, they added that a famine determination is very hard to make because it is heavily data-driven. "It's a very high bar and the nature of the process is that if the data aren't there, you say it's not a famine," Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, told ABC News. "It has no legal force. The word 'famine' has no meaning in law." The experts also said a famine determination may not matter because the time to intervene is now. Assessing famine often comes after many lives are lost and people are currently starving, they said. Scott Paul, the director of peace and security at NGO Oxfam America, told ABC News that much more food needs to enter Gaza than is currently being let in because of severe restrictions put in place by Israel, but water and sanitation interventions as well as nutritional supplementation are also important. "If people are drinking unsafe water or living in unsanitary conditions, that's what creates breeding grounds for diseases, and those are the primary killers in a famine situation," he said. During the 2012 famine in Somalia, about 250,000 people died. Of those deaths, approximately half occurred before a famine was declared, Paul said. "So, the importance of taking action before famine is declared can't be overstated," Paul said. What is the criteria for how a famine is determined? The first step in a famine declaration is a determination from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which is a scale used for food security measurement and decision-making. It was developed in 2004, originally for use in Somalia, led by the World Food Programme and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. The IPC is a collaboration of 21 organizations and intergovernmental institutions including CARE International, the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). "Once the U.N. and also the U.S. adopted this definition, it became the dominant metric," de Waal said. The IPC has five phases of acute food insecurity ranging from minimal/none (Phase 1) to catastrophe/famine (Phase 5). Phase categorizations occur at the household level, meaning that Phase 5 would refer to a household that is experiencing an extreme lack of food and that has exhausted all available options, Emily Byers, managing director of global development policy and advocacy at NGO Save the Children, told ABC News. The whole territory of Gaza is currently in Phase 4, which is characterized as an emergency, with half a million people expected to be in Phase 5, or catastrophe, by September 2025. On Tuesday, the IPC issued an alert warning that the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip." The alert stated, 'Unhindered, safe, stable and sustained humanitarian access must be guaranteed across the entire Gaza Strip and through all entry points -- land, sea and air -- to enable the delivery of lifesaving, multi-sectoral assistance and services at scale, and data collection on human welfare across the Gaza Strip.' To determine if a famine is happening, according to IPC, three thresholds have to be met: 20% of households must be facing an extreme food shortage, 30% of children must be acutely malnourished and either two adults or four children must be dying every day per 10,000 people. Even when the IPC determines an area has met all three criteria, the IPC's independent famine review committee -- consisting of experts in food security, livelihoods, nutrition and health -- must agree. Once the committee determines there is a famine, a declaration will typically made by the United Nations or the host government. The IPC can determine, but only an authoritative body can declare. "A famine declaration is different," Byers said. "That needs to be done usually by the government of the country where the area of famine is, or it can be an international body as well. So once the IPC is like, 'We think famine is present in this place,' it's not officially a declaration until there's another step." The IPC said in Tuesday's report that its alert "does not constitute a famine classification" but that given the most recent data, a new analysis will be conducted imminently. For a famine declaration to be made, there must first be a determination from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership, whose members include the World Health Organization. The difficulty in declaring a famine in wartime It can be very difficult to accurately access information to determine whether a famine is occurring during times of war, because of disruption to the population, like in Gaza. Paul told ABC News that Oxfam colleagues in Gaza, as well as other aid workers who would be collecting data, are working under strenuous circumstances. "Our colleagues in Gaza right now, they are trying to work under bombardment with no guarantee of safety," he said. "They are often going out on their own risk because the deconfliction and notification mechanisms that ought to guarantee their protection aren't functioning properly." De Waal said in a peaceful location, it is easier to survey whether 30% of children are malnourished, which is one of the metrics for determining a famine. In a combat zone, it is much harder to get the information and interpret it. "If the population is disrupted, and you don't know what's the baseline, you don't who you're capturing, who you're not capturing. It becomes harder, and it's a huge problem for Gaza," he said. Paul added that Oxfam colleagues are also experiencing the same problems facing the civilian population -- a shortage of food or expensive food where it is available. "And so, this is extraordinarily difficult to try to pull together a comprehensive, data-driven picture of anything," he said. "it is an extraordinarily difficult challenge to get the data that you'd need to have a famine declaration with confidence. Paul added that there is a high bar for declaring famine. Humanitarian organizations and committees need a reasonably high level of confidence that famine is taking place before making a determination, he said. "[If] we don't have the concrete numbers to back it up, we won't use [the term]," Paul said. De Waal added it is also possible to have a famine without an overall shortage of food, which make a declaration complicated. "In any famine, it is actually the poorest who are the ones who starve," de Waal said. "My former professor at Oxford who wrote a famous book called 'Poverty in Finance,' said, 'Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It's not the characteristic of there not being enough' and you describe famine as the failure of entitlement to food, not the failure of availability of food." Response to the hunger crisis in Gaza Aid groups continue to warn that the level of humanitarian aid currently being allowed into Gaza needs to be scaled up to meet the dire needs of civilians. "We're nowhere near where we need to be. These negotiations for a handful of trucks here or a couple of hours of a crossing there -- this is negotiating at the margins for people's lives," Paul said. "A lot of people assume that when you're facing a famine, that what you need to do is flood the zone with food -- that's part of the solution," Paul continued. "But there is a point of no return in extreme food emergencies, where for many people who are experiencing severe acute malnutrition, and particularly children who are experiencing acute malnutrition, food can actually be dangerous if you eat calories in a certain form and you're malnourished." DeWaal concurred, saying it's not enough to increase the amount of food, it's about getting the right food and the right specialized food to the people who need it. Byers said it is much harder to reverse the course of the hunger once a famine determination or declaration is made in any area, and that the phases before IPC's Phase 5 should serve as early warnings. "Once you get to that determination, there is already so much damage done that it just becomes so much harder and such a deeper, deeper problem to deal with and come back from, she said. "And so, acting early is just incredibly important ... We don't want to wait [until] kids are actively dying to really go in there with full-strength." Specifically in Gaza, there are humanitarian organizations around the world ready to fund "the kind of response that would save lives," Paul said.
New York Post
18-07-2025
- New York Post
Woman diagnosed with brain tumor after routine eye test
A woman was diagnosed with a brain tumor after a routine eye test and given a second blow when doctors discovered she also had breast cancer four months later. Elizabeth Craig, 55, had gone for a standard appointment at her local Specsavers in January 2022 when her optician noticed something unusual during the examination. She was diagnosed with a meningioma after an MRI scan revealed a brain tumor pressing on her optic nerve. At a follow-up appointment four months later, doctors spotted a suspicious nodule in Elizabeth's right breast, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. 6 Elizabeth Craig, 55, had gone for a standard appointment at her local Specsavers in January 2022 when her optician noticed something unusual during the examination. Brain Tumour Research / SWNS She had a mastectomy and lymph node removal, and paused treatment to get married in 2024, before undergoing brain surgery in February 2025 to remove her brain tumor. Elizabeth, from Corby, Northamptonshire, said: 'When they told me I had a tumor behind my eye, I felt completely overwhelmed. It didn't seem real. I had gone in expecting to get some new glasses, and within days I was facing conversations about brain surgery. 'I immediately assumed it was cancer, and my mind went to the worst-case scenario. 6 Craig was diagnosed with a meningioma after an MRI scan revealed a brain tumor pressing on her optic nerve. Brain Tumour Research / SWNS 'Getting two diagnoses like that, so close together, was a lot to process. It felt like my life was spiralling.' Elizabeth was referred to Kettering General Hospital after the optician found it unusual that she couldn't see out of her left eye but had no visible problems with the eye itself. She was diagnosed in January 2022 and had further testing done – such as blood tests. 6 At a follow-up appointment four months later, doctors spotted a suspicious nodule in Elizabeth's right breast, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Brain Tumour Research / SWNS In May 2022, she had a follow-up CT scan at John Radcliffe Hospital and was referred to the breast clinic, and diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2022. She said, 'I didn't tell many people at first about this terrifying news. 'I had only been with my partner Paul for six months at the time, and I didn't want to burden him. But he was amazing and supported me every step of the way.' 6 'I had only been with my partner Paul for six months at the time, and I didn't want to burden him. But he was amazing and supported me every step of the way,' Elizabeth said. Brain Tumour Research / SWNS Elizabeth had a mastectomy and lymph node removal later that year, followed by radiotherapy in June 2023. Once she was given the all-clear from breast cancer, she returned to John Radcliffe Hospital to discuss surgery for the brain tumor. She chose to postpone the operation so she and Paul could get married in June 2024. 6 Once she was given the all-clear from breast cancer, she returned to John Radcliffe Hospital to discuss surgery for the brain tumor. Brain Tumour Research / SWNS In February 2025, Elizabeth underwent a complex nine-hour procedure to successfully remove most of the brain tumor, which was later confirmed as non-cancerous. Now, Elizabeth is taking part in Brain Tumor Research's 88 Squats a Day in July challenge, aiming to complete 88 squats each day throughout the month. The total number of squats by the end of July symbolically represents the $3,685 (£2,740) it costs to fund a single day of research at one of the charity's Centres of Excellence. Elizabeth said, 'Taking on this challenge is deeply personal. Until it happened to me, I didn't realise how underfunded research into brain tumors is, even though they kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer. 6 Brain Tumour Research / SWNS 'I want to do what I can to raise awareness and help make a difference. Even though I'm still recovering, I feel ready to give something back.' Ashley McWilliams, community development manager at Brain Tumor Research, said: 'Elizabeth's story highlights how a simple eye test can lead to lifesaving discoveries. Her courage in facing not just one but two major diagnoses and her determination to raise awareness through this challenge is inspiring. We're so grateful for her support and wish her luck for the squat challenge.' People can go here to support Elizabeth's 88 squats challenge.
