Few things are more feared than a dementia diagnosis. Now people living with the condition are fighting against damaging stereotypes and demanding proper medical support

When Maxine Linnell, 78, a retired psychotherapist living in Leicestershire, learned that she had dementia four years ago, the diagnosis proved less challenging than some people’s reactions. “What was striking was how many people’s attitudes changed almost immediately … they stop seeing you as a person and see only dementia, some professionals included. Like this is the end and everything after will be devastating.”

The assumption that you go overnight from diagnosis to late-stage dementia isn’t confined to family and friends. Julie Hayden, a nurse and social worker from Yorkshire, was diagnosed nine years ago at the age of 54, long after sensing that something was wrong but being constantly told that it was depression or menopause; her doctors still associated dementia with old age and didn’t consider that she might have had young onset. “At the point of diagnosis,” she recalls, “most of us are told: ‘Well, it’s dementia, nothing we can do about that. Best go away and get your end of life affairs in order.’”

Readers respond to an article on how early intensive rehabilitation after a stroke or head injury is crucial for recovery

Rather like Ian Sample himself trying to read Orlando Swayne’s book, I was nervous reading his article, braced for half-digested truths or oversimplifications on neurotherapy (The doctor who mends broken brains: why there is room for hope after a stroke or head injury, 3 June). But he paints an accurate picture of the way brains retain neuroplasticity and the reality of the postcode lottery around therapy and rehabilitation services.

I am a speech and language therapist specialising in stroke and neurorehabilitation, and I can attest to what he and Dr Swayne state in the article – that sadly, for some people, the damage caused by neurotrauma cannot be recovered from, but for others, the vital neuroplasticity continues for months and, in some people I have seen, years at a time.

Trial suggests monoclonal antibody can help retain lean body mass when losing weight with GLP-1 medicines

A drug that promotes muscle growth could significantly reduce the loss of lean body mass when using slimming jabs, research suggests.

While GLP-1 based jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro have proved highly effective at helping people who are overweight or obese, experts have warned it is not only fat that is lost. Studies suggest 25-40% of total weight loss is down to a reduction in lean body mass – non-fat components of the body, including muscle.

Senior medical staff call for solutions to tackle root causes of excess deaths amid tenfold increase in a decade

More than 1,300 patients a month in England are dying needlessly due to long A&E waits, a tenfold rise in a decade, figures suggest.

There were more than 300 deaths linked to long waits every week in 2025, up from 30 a week in 2015, according to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

In today’s newsletter: ​Researchers are giving us new insights into early detection and treatments, but with access to life-saving care remaining uneven patients still have a long road ahead

Good morning. Israel has returned fire on Iran following a wave of missile strikes, the first attacks between the two countries since April’s ceasefire, despite Donald Trump reportedly urging Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate. The escalation threatens to drag the Middle East back into a regional war and raises fears that peace talks between Washington and Tehran could be derailed. But today we are looking at another – and possibly more hopeful – topic.

News of cancer, whenever it arrives, is never welcome. For most of human history, a diagnosis has been a death sentence. But increasingly, better drugs, better care and better testing mean that this is no longer true for many. Survival chances have radically improved for several cancers in recent decades. More than 50 million people are alive today after a cancer diagnosis in the last 5 years, according to the World Health Organization. Cancer mortality rates have decreased by almost a quarter (23%) in the UK since the early 1970s.

Middle East | Israel launched airstrikes on central and western Iran on Monday in apparent defiance of Donald Trump after he urged restraint over a reprisal attack by Tehran.

UK news | Vulnerable families including women fleeing abuse are being illegally “dumped” hundreds of miles away by London councils in a practice “ripping at the social fabric” of deprived towns.

Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of the UK, France and Germany discussed “the urgent need to scale up” Ukraine’s air defences and deep-strike capabilities, after Russia fired hypersonic weapons at Ukraine.

Technology | Silicon Valley companies including Meta have decided to embrace Maga politics, some for “rather more self-interested” reasons, the former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has said.

UK politics | David Lammy has said he told the US vice-president, JD Vance, he was “wrong” to blame the murder of the British teenager Henry Nowak on mass migration.

Scolyer, who did pioneering work on immunotherapy, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in 2023

• Richard Scolyer’s open letter to Australians

• Richard Scolyer obituary

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Prof Richard Scolyer, the world-renowned cancer researcher and former Australian of the year, has died at the age of 59.

Scolyer’s family shared a statement the eminent pathologist and melanoma expert penned before his final stages of illness.

‘My intention is for this letter to be published upon my passing – as my final farewell,’ famed cancer researcher writes

• Richard Scolyer, cancer researcher and former Australian of the year, dies aged 59

• Richard Scolyer obituary

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An open letter to all Australians from Prof Richard A Scolyer AO

16 December 1966 – 7 June 2026

One in five of the 1.92m patients on list wait longer than six weeks for tests such as CT and MRI scans, analysis shows

A record number of people are waiting for a diagnostic test on the NHS, triggering fears that delays in accessing CT and MRI scans could endanger patients’ health.

A total of 1.92 million patients in England are waiting to have a test to diagnose their illness such as by an ultrasound scan, assessment of their hearing, bone scan or various tests for cancer.

The diagnostic waiting list has grown by 500,000 since 2022.

It is 83% higher than before the Covid pandemic.

On current trends the waiting list will hit 2 million in March 2027.

A drug for pancreatic cancer shows immense promise, but we shouldn’t forget research in the field is a story of small victories

It is unlikely that we will ever declare a final victory over cancer. Governments have often promised it: from Nixon’s 1971 “war on cancer” to the 2016 Obama‑Biden plan to fight and cure it “once and for all” and Sajid Javid’s 2022 “war on cancer” initiative in the UK. But framing it this way can obscure how real progress is made: not in stunning routs, but in stalling and turning back the advance of this terrible condition – often in simply giving people more time to live.

Several such breakthroughs, and a bigger one that could transform the treatment of multiple kinds of cancer over the next decade, emerged at last week’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. As the Guardian revealed, there is a new jab effective against head and neck cancers in some patients, and a new immunotherapy that could spare bladder cancer patients invasive and life-changing surgery. Most significantly, there is a new drug called daraxonrasib, which doubled survival time for pancreatic cancer patients in a recent clinical trial.

Readers respond to an article on the serious failings at the Nottingham university hospitals trust

I am writing as someone who has been personally affected by failings in maternity services at Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust. Zoe Williams (Midwives want to make childbirth miraculous – so what went so wrong in Nottingham?, 1 June) correctly acknowledges the affect of austerity on maternity services (I can attest to that, having worked in the public sector), but it in no way excuses the repeated failings that so many of us have endured.

Austerity is not the reason that midwives, health visitors and doctors failed to conduct routine care for my partner. Understaffing was evident, but it did not prevent routine wound inspections and the taking of samples to confirm suspected infections. What I saw again and again was an ingrained arrogance, an attitude of “we know better” and an utter unwillingness to listen or learn.

Research suggests NHS trusts with higher empathy ratings also benefit financially and have improved staff wellbeing

Patients and staff fare better at hospitals that rank highly on empathy, research suggests, with institutions also benefiting financially by spending less on agency staff, locums and consultants.

The finding comes from the first study to rate NHS trusts in England according to an empathy score that is drawn from information on the organisation’s culture, leadership behaviour and practitioner empathy, among other factors.

Lord Mann’s review prompts new training for health bosses and restrictions on political symbols on uniforms

The NHS is taking action to tackle antisemitism after a government-ordered report found that Jewish patients and staff face “routine ostracism” in the service.

Anti-Jewish hatred in the NHS means some patients hide their identity and staff “suffer in silence”, a review by Lord Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism, has found.

Elahere is first new drug for chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer to be approved by NHS for 20 years

Hundreds of women with hard-to-treat ovarian cancer can now be offered a new life-prolonging treatment, after NHS England approved its introduction. It is the first new drug for resistant ovarian cancer to be approved for more than 20 years.

Ovarian is the 18th most common type of cancer globally, affecting more than 300,000 women a year. More than three-quarters of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, making it harder to treat.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the virus ‘had a big head start’ but that the response was catching up

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could have begun as early as January, the head of the World Health Organization said, giving the virus “a big head start”.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said the response was being hindered by blanket travel restrictions and highlighted high levels of community mistrust and low levels of contact tracing as key concerns.

New issue of the American Journal of Public Health focuses on parallels between marketing for cigarettes and UPFs

The new issue of the American Journal of Public Health focuses on ultra-processed foods, and reveals that big tobacco companies used strategies that helped them sell cigarettes to sell ultra-processed food products, including Lunchables, geared toward children.

The parallels between ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and cigarettes include not only how UPF products were formulated and marketed to drive excess consumption, but also the growing body of evidence linking UPFs to a variety of health risks. For UPFs, these include cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers and cognitive health decline.

In survey of more than 300 fired probationary employees, 95% reported continuing mental health effects

US federal workers laid off by the Trump administration say they are experiencing mental health effects, including PTSD-like symptoms, from losing their jobs, according to a new survey.

More than 300 fired probationary employees were surveyed, with 95% reporting ongoing mental health effects, according to 27UNIHTED, a network of former National Institute of Health (NIH) employees. Nearly half said they were experiencing PTSD-like symptoms, and a quarter are taking new medications to manage symptoms.

The neurologist Orlando Swayne doesn’t suggest everyone can recover. But he does argue that early, targeted and intense therapy can sometimes bring about life-changing improvements – and we have a moral obligation to provide it

Claire was in bad shape. She had been brought to the ward on a stretcher and hoisted on to a bed where she lay curled up in a ball. She was unable to speak, her eyes flat and face expressionless. While she could move her right arm a little, her left arm and both legs were immobile.

Life had changed dramatically for Claire, a mother of three in her late 30s, many months earlier, when she collapsed while on a night out with friends. A weakness in an artery at the base of her brain had ruptured, spilling blood around her frontal lobe. She was taken to hospital, where surgeons removed two side plate-sized pieces of bone from her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain. She spent months in intensive care.

Health secretary announces expansion of Transform trial but does not back population-wide testing

Thousands more black men will be invited to take part in a prostate cancer screening trial as the health secretary insisted he was “following the science” in not backing population-wide testing.

James Murray accepted a recommendation from the UK national screening committee (UKNSC) that will result in only a few thousand high-risk men with a gene mutation being screened for the disease.

NHS bosses giving evidence to public accounts committee admit current position is unacceptable

GPs in England are so “overloaded” that they cannot help older people who are at risk of falling in what NHS bosses accept is an unacceptable failure of care, the House of Commons’ public accounts committee has said.

Pressure on GPs’ time has intensified as a result of the government’s decision to give patients online access to their services, according to a report by the influential cross-party group of MPs.

Patients with knee arthritis who took medications for at least three years at reduced risk of needing surgery

Taking weight-loss drugs for at least three years could prevent thousands of knee replacements a year, research suggests.

Globally, more than 500 million people have osteoarthritis. Knee arthritis is the most common form, affecting about 14 million people in the US and more than 5 million in the UK. Many will require knee surgery. In the UK more than 120,000 knee replacements are carried out every year.