A pill has been shown to halve the risk of death from a certain type of lung cancer when taken daily after surgery to remove the tumor, according to clinical trial results presented on Sunday.

The results were unveiled in Chicago at the largest annual conference of cancer specialists, hosted by the American Society for Clinical Oncology.

Lung cancer is the form of the disease that causes the most deaths, with approximately 1.8 million fatalities every year worldwide.

The treatment developed by the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca is called osimertinib and is marketed under the name Tagrisso. It targets a particular type of lung cancer in patients suffering from so-called non-small cell cancer, the most common type, and showing a particular type of mutation.

These mutations, on what is called the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, affect 10% to 25% of lung cancer patients in the United States and Europe, and 30 to 40% in Asia.

The clinical trial included some 680 participants at an early stage of the disease (stages 1b to 3a), in more than 20 countries. They had to have been operated on first to remove the tumor, then half of the patients took the treatment daily, and the other a placebo.

The result showed that taking the tablet resulted in a 51% reduction in the risk of death for treated patients, compared to placebo.

After five years, 88% of patients who took the treatment were still alive, compared to 78% of patients who took the placebo.

These data are “impressive,” said Roy Herbst of Yale University, who presented them in Chicago. The drug helps “prevent the cancer from spreading to the brain, to the liver, to the bones,” he added at a press conference.

About a third of cases of non-small cell cancers can be operated on when detected, he said.

“It is hard for me to convey, I think, how important this finding is,” said Nathan Pennell of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation at the press conference.

“We started entering the personalized therapy era for early-stage patients,” said Pennell, who did not take part in the trials, and noted that “we should firmly close the door on one-size-fits-all treatment for people with non-small cell lung cancer.”

Osimertinib is already authorized in dozens of countries for various indications, and has already been given to some 700,000 people, according to a press release from AstraZeneca.

Its approval in the United States for early stages in 2020 was based on previous data that showed an improvement in patient disease-free survival, that is, the time a patient lives without a recurrence of cancer.

But not all doctors have adopted the treatment, and many were waiting for the data on overall survival that was presented on Sunday, said Herbst.

He stressed the need to screen patients to find out if they have the EGFR mutation. Otherwise, he said, “we cannot use this new treatment.”

Osimertinib, which targets the receptor, causes side effects that include severe fatigue, skin rashes or diarrhea.
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Hollywood’s major studios reached a tentative labor agreement with the union representing film and television directors, likely averting a work stoppage that would have piled pressure on media companies to settle with striking writers. 

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) will ask its 19,000 members to approve the three-year contract, which was announced late Saturday after three weeks of talks. 

The agreement includes gains in wages and residuals plus guardrails around the use of artificial intelligence, according to the DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Netflix, Walt Disney Co. and other major studios. 

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike since May 2, shutting down several TV and film productions, and has no new talks scheduled with the studios. 

During the last WGA strike in 2007 and 2008, a studio deal with the DGA prompted writers to head back to the bargaining table. On Friday, WGA negotiator Chris Keyser argued that strategy would not work this time. 

“Any deal that puts this town back to work runs straight through the WGA, and there is no way around that,” Keyser said in a video posted on YouTube. 

The DGA’s board will consider whether to approve the deal Tuesday before it goes to members for ratification. No date has been set for the ratification vote. 

If approved, the deal could offer a blueprint for the striking writers and upcoming talks between studios and SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood actors. 

WGA representatives did not respond to requests for comment Sunday, but some writers voiced reactions on social media. 

“Spartacus” creator Steven DeKnight called the DGA deal “disappointing, but not surprising.” 

Writer Bill Wolkoff said he had mixed emotions. “Happy for gains DGA members made, frustrated we were stonewalled on all our asks. My resolve is only stronger,” he wrote. 

In the DGA’s agreement, directors secured wage increases starting at 5% the first year, an increase in residuals from streaming, and a guarantee that “generative AI cannot replace the duties performed by members.” 

AI has emerged as a major concern of writers and actors, who see their jobs as especially vulnerable to the new technology. 

Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are seeking protections from AI in their negotiations as well as increases in compensation that they say has lagged as companies have benefited from the rise of streaming television. 

SAG-AFTRA has asked members to give its negotiators the power to call a strike if needed, and the results of that vote are expected to be announced Monday. Contract talks between the actors and studios begin Wednesday. The current labor agreement expires June 30. 

The WGA work stoppage has disrupted production of late-night shows and shut down high-profile projects such as Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and a “Game of Thrones” spinoff. 
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Gov. Joe Lombardo wants to help build Major League Baseball’s smallest ballpark — arguing that the worst team in baseball can boost Las Vegas, a city striving to call itself a sports mecca.

Nationwide debate about public funding for private sports clubs has been revived with the Oakland Athletics ballpark proposal. The issue pits Nevada’s powerful tourism industry, including trade unions, against a growing chorus of mostly progressive groups that, throughout the country, are raising concerns about use of tax dollars to finance sports stadiums but could otherwise fund government services or schools.

The debate over relocating the team from California to Nevada echoes others around the country, where politicians have approved large sums of taxpayer money going to sports clubs in Buffalo, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; and Nashville, Tennessee. In Tempe, Arizona, though, voters rejected a $2.3 billion proposal that would have included a new arena for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes.

The Oakland A’s organization has hired more than a dozen lobbyists to persuade lawmakers in Nevada’s normally sleepy, 60,000-resident state capital to approve the proposal to build a $1.5 billion stadium, arguing the project will create jobs, boost economic activity and add a new draw to the tourism-based economy in Las Vegas — all without raising taxes. Central to the pitch is the city’s newfound sports success with NFL, NHL and WNBA teams that were nonexistent or based elsewhere seven years ago.

“Las Vegas is clearly a sports town, and Major League Baseball should be a part of it,” Lombardo, a Republican, said in a statement.

But those against giving professional sports teams incentive packages have said tax credits and other means of public financing aren’t beneficial. They cite growing evidence that dollars generated from the new stadium would not be spent at nearby resorts and restaurants. Half of the tax credits may not be paid back to the state. Much of the A’s investment in the community, including homelessness prevention and outreach, hinges on whether the ball club has money left over after stadium costs.

“I just cannot justify giving millions of public dollars to a multibillion-dollar corporation while we cannot pay for the basic services that our folks need,” Democratic Assemblywoman Selena La Rue Hatch said.

Last month, Lombardo’s office introduced the stadium financing bill with less than two weeks left in the legislative session.

The bill would provide up to $380 million in public assistance, partly through $180 million in transferable tax credits and $120 million in county bonds — taxpayer-backed loans, to help finance projects and a special tax district around the stadium. Backers have pledged the district will generate enough money to pay off those bonds and interest.

The A’s would not owe property taxes for the publicly owned stadium and Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, also would contribute $25 million in credit toward infrastructure costs.

In places like Buffalo and Oakland, proponents of new stadiums have argued tax incentives prevent the departure of decades-old businesses. But the debate in Nevada differs. The state already heavily relies on entertainment and tourism to power its economy, and lawmakers or appointed boards for years have talked about diversifying the economy to justify incentives to businesses including Tesla. Another deal that legislators are weighing would expand a film tax credit system to $190 million annually over at least 20 years to bring major film studios to Las Vegas.

The Legislature has until Monday, when the session adjourns until 2025, to push through the stadium and film proposals, though the possibility of a special legislative session looms.

Both proposals are far from a done deal as lawmakers prepare to vote.

In recent decades there has been an increase in new stadium deals that are mostly — but not always — publicly funded. Two vastly different examples already are visible on the Strip.

A last-minute bill in Nevada’s 2016 special session paved the way for $750 million in public funding from hotel room taxes for the $2 billion Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders and host of the upcoming Super Bowl.

T-Mobile Arena, home to the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights, opened in 2016 after MGM Resorts and a California developer covered the full $375 million price tag. On Saturday, the arena hosted the first game of the Stanley Cup.

The A’s recently received the backing of the powerful Culinary Union, a 60,000-member group of workers on the Las Vegas Strip, after agreeing to let stadium employees unionize. It’s a key endorsement from the state’s most prominent labor group, often seen as a vital mobilizing force for Democratic campaigns in the western swing state.

“We will support large-scale projects — whether they’re pro-teams, event centers or large companies — if they’re going to bring good union jobs with healthcare and pensions,” said Ted Pappageorge, the Culinary Union’s secretary-treasurer.

While the debate surrounding public financing for private sports stadiums has animated governing bodies nationwide, that same debate among economists strikes a different tone.

Roger Noll, a Stanford University economics emeritus professor, said the question among economists is whether bringing new stadiums to cities has a net impact that is slightly negative or positive — without any public assistance.

To be effective, a stadium in Las Vegas would have to draw in a substantial number of visitors who would not normally come to the city, Noll said. If stadiums are another asset to an already-existing structure, then most of the money spent there would likely be spent in neighboring attractions, like the Sunset Strip’s resorts and restaurants. Much of the ball club’s financing also goes toward player salaries, who often don’t live in their team’s city year-round.

“It’s not that they don’t exist, but they’re tiny,” Noll said of the economic benefits. “They can’t possibly be big enough to justify hundreds of millions of dollars in expenditure.”
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US special climate envoy John Kerry has met senior Emirati officials in Abu Dhabi, including the head of the United Nations’ upcoming climate change conference, official media reported Sunday.

The choice of Sultan al-Jaber, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, to head December’s COP28 summit in Dubai has angered climate activists and some Western legislators who fear it will hold back progress on reducing emissions.

Kerry met with al-Jaber and the UAE foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed, on Saturday, discussing “the existing partnership across various fronts with a special emphasis on climate-related issues”, the official WAM news agency said.

In January, Kerry welcomed al-Jaber’s appointment as COP28 head, but last month more than 100 lawmakers from the U.S. Congress and European Parliament called for the oil company boss’s removal from the position.

They urged a “limit [to] the influence of polluting industries” at gatherings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in a letter to US President Joe Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Al-Jaber regularly calls for more investment in hydrocarbons to meet global energy demand, emphasizing the need to boost development of technologies for capturing carbon dioxide emissions.

Oil producers have for years touted carbon capture as a potential global warming solution, against criticism from climate experts who say it risks distracting from the urgent goal of slashing fossil fuel pollution.

With little investment and few projects in operation around the world so far, carbon capture technology is currently nowhere near the scale needed to make a significant difference to global emissions.
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Apple appears poised to unveil a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real world, while also testing the technology trendsetter’s ability to popularize new-fangled devices after others failed to capture the public’s imagination.

After years of speculation, the stage is set for the widely anticipated announcement to be made Monday at Apple’s annual developers conference in a Cupertino, California, theater named after the company’s late co-founder Steve Jobs. Apple is also likely to use the event to show off its latest Mac computer, preview the next operating system for the iPhone and discuss its strategy for artificial intelligence.

But the star of the show is expected to be a pair of goggles — perhaps called “Reality Pro,” according to media leaks — that could become another milestone in Apple’s lore of releasing game-changing technology, even though the company hasn’t always been the first to try its hand at making a particular device.

Apple’s lineage of breakthroughs date back to a bow-tied Jobs peddling the first Mac in 1984 — a tradition that continued with the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, the Apple Watch in 2014 and its AirPods in 2016.

But with a hefty price tag that could be in the $3,000 range, Apple’s new headset may also be greeted with a lukewarm reception from all but affluent technophiles.

If the new device turns out to be a niche product, it would leave Apple in the same bind as other major tech companies and startups that have tried selling headsets or glasses equipped with technology that either thrusts people into artificial worlds or projects digital images with scenery and things that are actually in front of them — a format known as “augmented reality.”

Apple’s goggles are expected be sleekly designed and capable of toggling between totally virtual or augmented options, a blend sometimes known as “mixed reality.” That flexibility also is sometimes called external reality, or XR for shorthand.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been describing these alternate three-dimensional realities as the “metaverse.” It’s a geeky concept that he tried to push into the mainstream by changing the name of his social networking company to Meta Platforms in 2021 and then pouring billions of dollars into improving the virtual technology.

But the metaverse largely remains a digital ghost town, although Meta’s virtual reality headset, the Quest, remains the top-selling device in a category that so far has mostly appealed to video game players looking for even more immersive experiences.

Apple executives seem likely to avoid referring to the metaverse, given the skepticism that has quickly developed around that term, when they discuss the potential of the company’s new headset.

In recent years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has periodically touted augmented reality as technology’s next quantum leap, while not setting a specific timeline for when it will gain mass appeal.

“If you look back in a point in time, you know, zoom out to the future and look back, you’ll wonder how you led your life without augmented reality,” Cook, who is 62, said last September while speaking to an audience of students in Italy. “Just like today you wonder how did people like me grow up without the internet. You know, so I think it could be that profound. And it’s not going to be profound overnight.”

The response to virtual, augmented and mixed reality has been decidedly ho-hum so far. Some of the gadgets deploying the technology have even been derisively mocked, with the most notable example being Google’s internet-connected glasses released more than a decade ago.

After Google co-founder Sergey Brin initially drummed up excitement about the device by demonstrating an early model’s potential “wow factor” with a skydiving stunt staged during a San Francisco tech conference, consumers quickly became turned off to a product that allowed its users to surreptitiously take pictures and video. The backlash became so intense that people who wore the gear became known as “Glassholes,” leading Google to withdraw the product a few years after its debut.

Microsoft also has had limited success with HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset released in 2016, although the software maker earlier this year insisted it remains committed to the technology.

Magic Leap, a startup that stirred excitement with previews of a mixed-reality technology that could conjure the spectacle of a whale breaching through a gymnasium floor, had so much trouble marketing its first headset to consumers in 2018 that it has since shifted its focus to industrial, healthcare and emergency uses.

Daniel Diez, Magic Leap’s chief transformation officer, said there are four major questions Apple’s goggles will have to answer: “What can people do with it? What does this thing look and feel like? Is it comfortable to wear? And how much is it going to cost?”

The anticipation that Apple’s goggles are going to sell for several thousand dollars already has dampened expectations for the product. Although he expects Apple’s goggles to boast “jaw dropping” technology, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said he expects the company to sell just 150,000 units during the device’s first year on the market — a mere speck in the company’s portfolio. By comparison, Apple sells more than 200 million iPhones, its marquee product a year. But the iPhone wasn’t an immediate sensation, with sales of fewer than 12 million units in its first full year on the market.

In a move apparently aimed at magnifying the expected price of Apple’s goggles, Zuckerberg made a point of saying last week that the next Quest headset will sell for $500, an announcement made four months before Meta Platform plans to showcase the latest device at its tech conference.

Since 2016, the average annual shipments of virtual- and augmented-reality devices have averaged 8.6 million units, according to the research firm CCS Insight. The firm expects sales to remain sluggish this year, with a sales projection of about 11 million of the devices before gradually climbing to 67 million in 2026.

But those forecasts were obviously made before it’s known whether Apple might be releasing a product that alters the landscape.

“I would never count out Apple, especially with the consumer market and especially when it comes to finding those killer applications and solutions,” Magic Leap’s Diez said. “If someone is going to crack the consumer market early, I wouldn’t be surprised it would be Apple.”
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