Gas line explosion demolishes California house, injures 6 admin - Latest News - December 12, 2025 admin 5 views 5 secs 0 Comments Gas line explosion demolishes California house, injures 6 Source link PREVIOUS Dec. 11, 2025, 6:00 PM ESTBy Kaitlin SullivanWhen Chase Johnson was 31, her dog began acting strange. He was anxious, wouldn’t leave her side and, one day, pushed his nose into the side of her breast. Johnson felt a hard lump. “I wasn’t someone who was good at doing self-exams, I don’t think I would have found it otherwise,” Johnson, now 36, of Cary, North Carolina, said. “I had no family history of breast cancer.”Johnson was diagnosed in February 2021 with triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive type of the disease that tends to grow quickly and spread to other parts of the body. Breast cancer treatment is determined in part by whether certain proteins are present on the tumor cells, including estrogen receptors and progesterone receptors, as well as a protein called HER2. Treatments can target these three proteins. Breast cancers with neither receptor and which produce little to no HER2 are deemed triple-negative, making them more difficult to treat.Johnson underwent four months of intravenous chemotherapy and surgery to remove her tumor and lymph nodes. After that, she had another six months of oral chemo and 24 rounds of radiation. Her treatment was considered successful, and afterward she began looking for ways to prevent the cancer from coming back. About 40% of women with triple-negative breast cancer have a recurrence within the five years of treatment, and in about 30% of those women, the cancer recurs in the brain. It can also re-emerge in the lungs, liver and lymph nodes. In December 2022, Johnson enrolled in an early-stage clinical trial at the Cleveland Clinic that is testing a novel vaccine that researchers hope could stop triple-negative breast cancer recurrences and, in some women, stop the cancer from developing in the first place. Johnson joined Cleveland Clinic’s Phase 1 clinical trial studying a vaccine for triple-negative breast cancer.Courtesy of Chase Johnson“I am literally doing anything possible to make sure this doesn’t come back,” Johnson said. “For triple negative, the resources are so limited; if the traditional treatment methods don’t work, you’re just kind of out of luck.”The vaccine targets a protein called α-lactalbumin, which is present in about 70% of triple-negative breast cancers and found on the surface of tumor cells. If successful, the vaccine would teach the immune system to make T-cells that attack and destroy cells with the protein. The latest findings of the Phase 1 clinical trial, which included 35 women, were presented Thursday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas. The trial looked at whether the vaccine was safe and if it triggered an immune response in three groups of patients. (It did not look at how the vaccine affected outcomes.) The first group, which included Johnson, was women who had recovered from early stage triple-negative breast cancer and were tumor-free but at high risk for recurrence. The second was women who had undergone treatment for early-stage disease and had remaining tumor cells. The third group had not yet been diagnosed with breast cancer, but carried a genetic predisposition, such as the BRCA gene, that put them at high risk for triple-negative cancer.The researchers found that 74% of the women developed an immune response to the vaccine — though what that result means for reducing recurrence or preventing disease is still unknown. “Whether this immune response will translate into reducing the risk of recurrence or preventing breast cancer, we don’t know that yet,” said trial leader Dr. G. Thomas Budd, a breast cancer medical oncologist at Cleveland Clinic’s Cancer Institute. The vaccine also appeared to be safe: Women reported redness or a lump at the injection site, but no serious adverse events were seen.One concern was whether the vaccine would trigger an autoimmune response, where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body. Women naturally produce α-lactalbumin when lactating, which the vaccine could train the body to attack. Because of this, Budd said he doesn’t recommend that women who want to breastfeed enroll in the trial. The Phase 1 results, while promising, only represent an early step in determining whether the vaccine will prove successful.A Phase 2 trial is expected to begin late next year. That trial will be the first to look at whether the vaccine can reduce the risk of a triple-negative breast cancer recurrence. If that goes well, future trials will test prevention in patients with a genetic risk, Budd said. Justin Balko, co-leader of the Breast Cancer Research Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, said the most promising use for the vaccine would be to prevent a first cancer occurrence or a recurrence, rather than target lingering cancer cells.That’s because over time, tumor cells can learn how to hide target proteins from the immune system, Balko said. New cancer cells are less likely to develop this ability, he added.Vaccine exploration for triple-negative breast cancer is a welcome task, said Dr. Larry Norton, founding medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The most effective targeted breast cancer treatments need estrogen or HER2 receptors to be present in tumors. “Triple-negative doesn’t have either, so we are left only with chemotherapy,” Norton said. Even if the α-lactalbumin-targeting vaccine is not effective in a Phase 2 trial, Norton said scientists are getting better at identifying the abnormal molecules found on different tumor cells. Those abnormalities serve as targets for novel therapies. “There was a time when we would say HER2 is the worst type of breast cancer you can have, then along came HER2-targeting therapies and now all of the sudden one of the worst prognosis markers becomes one of the best,” Norton said. “This could be the story of triple-negative breast cancer if we find a target for it.”Kaitlin SullivanKaitlin Sullivan is a contributor for NBCNews.com who has worked with NBC News Investigations. She reports on health, science and the environment and is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York. NEXT Dec. 11, 2025, 4:53 PM ESTBy Carmen SesinDORAL, Fla. — On a recent rainy afternoon near Miami, Maria Alejandra Barroso made her daily trek to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church before heading to work and prayed for the Trump administration to succeed in ousting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.“Every day I pray for it to be peaceful and for innocent people to not get hurt,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. Barroso, 44, a server at a restaurant, emigrated from Venezuela in 2022 and has a pending asylum case. President Donald Trump’s immigration policy changes have stripped legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants and put more of them at risk of deportation. But Barroso said that ending Maduro’s almost 13-year reign is far more important to her than any worries over possible deportation, since it would mean returning home. Maria Alejandra Barroso outside Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Doral, Fla., on Tuesday.Carmen Sesin / NBC News“I’m not here because I want to be. It was necessary. I have friends in prison just for thinking differently,” she said. “We want democracy and peace. I completely trust the actions of President Trump.” In Doral, a city in Miami-Dade County with the highest concentration of Venezuelans in the U.S., discussions revolve around whether Trump should get more involved in Venezuela and the controversy over the U.S. attacks on alleged drug boats. Talk about Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro is prevalent everywhere, and Venezuelans in the enclave are bubbling with hope for Maduro’s ouster. The Trump administration has taken a more antagonistic stance toward Venezuela recently.The U.S. military has moved thousands of troops and a carrier strike group to the Caribbean Sea in recent months and conducted strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Trump said in an interview with Politico on Tuesday that Maduro’s “days are numbered” and refused to rule out a U.S. ground invasion. On Wednesday, the U.S. seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.Alejandro Márquez, 64, echoed the sentiment of Barroso outside the church, saying he would be on the first plane back to Venezuela despite being a U.S. citizen and living here since 2013.“I’m focused on reconstructing Venezuela on the side of security,” said Márquez, who is a former sub-secretary of defense and security in the northwestern state of Zulia.Maria Alejandra Barroso and two other women pray in front of the altar outside Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church on Tuesday. Carmen Sesin / NBC NewsTrump won over 60% of Doral in the 2024 election. While some Venezuelans expressed skepticism about whether his pressure campaign will work, they’re still checking their phones constantly to find news on social media or the latest information a friend forwarded on WhatsApp. Many Venezuelans in South Florida are using global flight tracking apps to monitor planes arriving and departing Venezuela, to try to glean whether there’s any changes that may indicate some kind of activity. A few miles from the church, at a popular cafeteria-style Venezuelan restaurant, El Arepazo, employee Rosangel Patiño said business is a little slower because people are afraid to go out amid Trump’s immigration crackdown. But she said all the patrons that walk in are constantly talking about the situation in Venezuela and looking for the latest news.“Everyone is glued to social media,” Patiño said.Victor Montero, a business owner who was having lunch at the restaurant, said when he gets home from work each day he scours YouTube for the latest information. “I feel the same way as all Venezuelans. It gives me so much happiness to know that at any moment, it can all end,” said Montero, who came to the U.S. from Venezuela 22 years ago. “The family in Venezuela is going through a very difficult time.”Trump has accused Maduro of being the leader of “a narcoterrorist organization” and of flooding the U.S. with drugs. Some experts say Trump’s actions are aimed at regime change, a charge that Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied. While some experts have cautioned against the challenges of regime change in Venezuela, many Venezuelans, including Nobel Prize winner and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, credit Trump with attempting to restore democracy in their country. In 2019, during his first term, Trump used a “maximum pressure” campaign against Maduro, including sanctions and recognizing an opposition politician as Venezuela’s rightful leader.“Venezuelans in Florida want Maduro gone. They want the situation in Venezuela resolved,” said Eduardo Gamarra, a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University.“But a lot of them are concerned about what it means for them in terms of their situation with immigration,” Gamarra added. For Venezuelans who don’t have legal immigration status and who may be at risk of deportation, questions about how any conflict or change in Venezuela could affect them are top of mind, he said.Gamarra, who does polling and focus groups, says he finds people are afraid to answer questions about immigration because they fear retaliation. “People are being very cautious when you ask them about Trump,” he said, adding it makes it harder to do polling. Venezuelans started coming to Florida in large numbers in the early 2000s after socialist Hugo Chávez rose to power. The first wave of Venezuelans were business-savvy, mid- to upper-class professionals. Some even owned second homes in Florida already. But the situation deteriorated drastically when Maduro, a former bus driver and activist, took power in 2013 following the death of Chávez, his mentor. And that led to increasingly desperate Venezuelans arriving in South Florida, many with little in their pockets. Under Maduro’s rule the country’s oil-driven economy has faced a decade-long collapse due to mismanagement, corruption and sanctions. An estimated 80% of residents live in poverty. To solidify his iron grip, Maduro has used repression, arbitrary arrests, torture and disappearances. He eliminated independent media, criminalized civil society and banned opponents from public office. Around 8 million Venezuelans have fled under his rule.Maduro drew worldwide scrutiny and condemnation last year following presidential elections in which he lost by 40% but ignored the results and stayed in power. The Biden administration and governments of other countries officially recognized opposition leader Edmundo González as the winner. Outside El Arepazo, Rafael Landa, who came to the U.S. five years ago, questioned whether Trump’s actions will lead to regime change in Venezuela.“I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as people think,” he said as he opened the restaurant door. “I’m not getting my hopes up.”Carmen SesinCarmen Sesin is a reporter for NBC News based in Miami, Florida.