CU Anschutz Newsroom

How CU Anschutz Is Bringing Precision Medicine to Patients With Rare Cancers

Carie Behounek — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:29:04 GMT

The takeaway:

Can Vaginal Estrogen Cream Erase Signs of Aging on Your Face?

Carie Behounek — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 14:37:28 GMT

The Takeaway:

FDA Clears Clinical Trial Using CAR T-Cells to Fight Colorectal Cancer

David.Kelly@ucdenver.edu (David Kelly) — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:37:51 GMT

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted permission for investigators at the University of Colorado Anschutz to conduct a clinical trial testing genetically engineered immune cells in adults with advanced colorectal cancer and pediatric patients with solid cancers who have exhausted standard treatment options.

Study Finds Limited Evidence for Helping Hospitalized Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder Connect to Follow-Up Care

David.Kelly@ucdenver.edu (David Kelly) — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 21:01:37 GMT

A systematic review by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz and Yale University found limited evidence that hospital-based interventions can help people with alcohol use disorder connect with outpatient treatment after they leave the hospital.

Menopause Is Missing from Most Electronic Health Records, Study Finds

kelsea.pieters@cuanschutz.edu (Kelsea Pieters) — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:14:04 GMT

Menopause is frequently missing from women’s electronic health records, according to a University of Colorado Anschutz study of nearly 396,000 women participating in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program.

Is Poor Sleep Contributing to the Country’s Weight Issues?

debra.melani@cuanschutz.edu (Debra Melani) — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:15:13 GMT

Seven out of 10 teens trying to adapt to a fall schedule right now are missing out on sleep. Early bells and tough classes combine with delayed biological clocks during adolescence, keeping their nightly sleep time during the school year under the recommended 8-10 hours for their age group.

Varicella Zoster Virus Can Cause Serious Disease Beyond Chickenpox and Shingles

kelsea.pieters@cuanschutz.edu (Kelsea Pieters) — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:10:26 GMT

New research published today in Nature Reviews Disease Primers is shedding light on the surprisingly broad range of neurological and systemic diseases that can be caused by varicella zoster virus (VZV), the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles.

High or Low White Blood Cell Count? Understanding Your CBC Blood Test Results

Carie Behounek — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:59:50 GMT

Neurodivergent and Neurotypical Relationships: How to Communicate and Stay Connected

matthew.hastings@ucdenver.edu (Matthew Hastings) — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:12:14 GMT

The Takeaway: Neurotypical and neurodivergent people see, feel and experience the world differently. Those differences can create communication and relationship challenges within mixed partnerships and friendships. To avoid hurt feelings, a licensed social worker and associate professor of psychiatry recommends maintaining honest dialogue and making small, empathetic changes to build stronger connections.

Communication breakdowns and misunderstandings are at the root of many relationship challenges between both friends and romantic partners. What happens if the people involved are also running a slightly different “operating system” in their brains?

That’s the question at the heart of relationships between neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals.

“Neurodivergent is not a medical diagnosis, but an umbrella, descriptive social term for the lived experience of a group of people whose brains function differently from the everyday statistical norm,” said Emily Hemendinger, MPH, a licensed clinical social worker and associate professor of psychiatry at the CU Anschutz School of Medicine. Neurodivergent conditions range widely, from autism to bipolar disorder.

Defining neurodivergent conditions

Neurodivergent conditions that fall under the umbrella term include: ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, Tourette's syndrome, OCD, bipolar disorder and sensory processing disorders.

While almost 1 in 5 Americans identify as neurodivergent, the presentation and experience from person to person also can vary widely. That’s why it is so important to have open, honest and vulnerable conversations with those people in your life, Hemendinger said.

“Difference doesn't mean a defect. But there is often a mismatch in expectations and processing differences when we have this kind of dynamic between neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals.”

In the following Q&A, Hemendinger outlines the main areas where challenges might arise and tips for how to build a stronger relationship foundation through better, more honest and compassionate quality time and communication.

How Dementia with Lewy Bodies Is Diagnosed: A Neurologist Explains Symptoms, Testing and New Treatments

matthew.hastings@ucdenver.edu (Matthew Hastings) — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:09:54 GMT

The takeaway: Lewy body dementia accounts for up to 20% of dementia cases and is closely related to Parkinson’s disease due to the buildup of a protein in neurons in the brain. It can be difficult to diagnose, but new tests and approaches, combined with new drugs, are improving treatment and care. A neurologist recommends seeking help if you are having trouble with thinking and memory to identify the specific cause.

Getting to the bottom of dementia symptoms for an accurate diagnosis takes a particular kind of detective.

Enter Samantha Holden, MD, associate professor of neurology, cognitive and movement disorders neurologist and director of the Lewy Body Dementia Association Research Center of Excellence at CU Anschutz.

“Dementia is a general, umbrella term that is defined by a decline in a person’s thinking and memory that is abnormal for that individual, affecting their daily independence and day-to-day life. It can't be a baseline impairment or a cognitive disability. Under that umbrella of dementia, there's probably dozens of different causes.”

But identifying those impairments and their causes is often a puzzle, one that gets more complex when discussing dementia with Lewy bodies – caused by a buildup of a particular protein in neurons – that can have symptoms both typical of dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

“Patients that have what we would now describe as dementia with Lewy bodies were going into Alzheimer’s clinics looking for answers,” Holden said. “Doctors and specialists would be confused by the presentation of their symptoms, since it varied so much from Alzheimer’s disease. And if you're not seeing the full picture and addressing and evaluating all those pieces, you might come to the wrong conclusion if you're looking at it from a different angle.”

In the following Q&A, Holden describes how the field of Lewy body dementia is improving diagnostics and patient care through enhanced screening, new drugs and therapeutics, and a personalized care approach.