ROCHESTER, Minn. — The immune system is meant to protect the body from infection and disease. But with age, it can become less capable of doing so. However, Mayo Clinic researchers have found that some older people maintain "immune youth" – a new term coined by Mayo researchers to explain a young immune system in someone over age 60.

"We are studying why some individuals have a 'fountain of youth' in their immune systems. We want to learn from them," says Cornelia Weyand, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic rheumatologist and clinician-scientist. She is a lead author on a perspective paper published in Nature Aging.

Dr. Weyand's research team discovered this cellular fountain of youth in more than 100 older patients who came to Mayo Clinic to receive treatment for an autoimmune disease that affects the arteries, including the aorta, called giant cell arteritis. Dr. Weyand and colleagues found in the diseased tissue of these patients specialized immune cells, called stem-like T cells. These immune cells behave like young stem cells that usually regenerate and aid healing and growth; but in this case, they were spreading the disease. This team of researchers also discovered autoimmune stem cells in humans previously.

"We observed that these patients have very young immune systems despite being in their 60s and 70s. But the price they pay for that is autoimmunity," she says.

Autoimmunity is when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues and organs.

In addition, the researchers saw that the immune checkpoint inhibitors that regulate the immune system were not working properly.

Benefits of immune system aging

"Contrary to what one may think, there are benefits to having an immune system that ages in tandem with the body," says Jörg Goronzy, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher on aging who is a co-lead author of the paper. "We need to consider the price to pay for immune youthfulness. That price can be autoimmune disease."

Immune aging is a sophisticated adaptation mechanism that the immune system can use to prevent autoimmune disease, say the researchers.

They are in the process of developing new diagnostic tests that will help find patients and healthy individuals who carry high numbers of immune stem cells and may be predisposed to autoimmune disease later in life. The research is part of a larger effort at Mayo Clinic called the Precure initiative, focused on developing tools that empower clinicians to predict and intercept biological processes before they evolve into disease or progress into complex, hard-to-treat conditions.

Review the study for a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding. 

Additional resources:
Mayo Clinic advances research on mysterious blood vessel disease

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Alison Satake, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Scientific breakthroughs in one disease don't always shed light on treating other diseases. But that's been the surprising journey of one Mayo Clinic research team. After identifying a sugar molecule that cancer cells use on their surfaces to hide from the immune system, the researchers have found the same molecule may eventually help in the treatment of type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune condition in which the immune system errantly attacks pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin. The disease is caused by genetic and other factors and affects an estimated 1.3 million people in the U.S.

In their studies, the Mayo Clinic researchers took a cancer mechanism and turned it on its head. Cancer cells use a variety of methods to evade immune response, including coating themselves in a sugar molecule known as sialic acid. The researchers found in a preclinical model of type 1 diabetes that it's possible to dress up beta cells with the same sugar molecule, enabling the immune system to tolerate the cells.

"Our findings show that it's possible to engineer beta cells that do not prompt an immune response," says immunology researcher Virginia Shapiro, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

A few years ago, Dr. Shapiro's team demonstrated that an enzyme, known as ST8Sia6, that increases sialic acid on the surface of tumor cells helps tumor cells appear as though they are not foreign entities to be targeted by the immune system.  

"The expression of this enzyme basically ‘sugar coats' cancer cells and can help protect an abnormal cell from a normal immune response. We wondered if the same enzyme might also protect a normal cell from an abnormal immune response," Dr. Shapiro says. The team first established proof of concept in an artificially-induced model of diabetes.

In the current study, the team looked at preclinical models that are known for the spontaneous development of autoimmune (type 1) diabetes, most closely approximating the process that occurs in patients. Researchers engineered beta cells in the models to produce the ST8Sia6 enzyme.

In the preclinical models, the team found that the engineered cells were 90% effective in preventing the development of type 1 diabetes. The beta cells that are typically destroyed by the immune system in type 1 diabetes were preserved.

Importantly, the researchers also found the immune response to the engineered cells appears to be highly specific, says M.D.-Ph.D. student Justin Choe, first author of the publication. Choe conducted the study in the Ph.D. component of his dual degree at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine.

"Though the beta cells were spared, the immune system remained intact," Choe says. The researchers were able to see active B- and T-cells and evidence of an autoimmune response against another disease process. "We found that the enzyme specifically generated tolerance against autoimmune rejection of the beta cell, providing local and quite specific protection against type 1 diabetes."

No cure currently exists for type 1 diabetes, and treatment involves using synthetic insulin to regulate blood sugar, or, for some people, undergoing a transplant of pancreatic islet cells, which include the much-needed beta cells. Because transplantation involves immunosuppression of the entire immune system, Dr. Shapiro aims to explore using the engineered beta cells in transplantable islet cells with the goal of ultimately improving therapy for patients.

"A goal would be to provide transplantable cells without the need for immunosuppression," says Dr. Shapiro. "Though we're still in the early stages, this study may be one step toward improving care."

The research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Please see the study for the full list of authors.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Kelley Luckstein, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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Researchers are leading the nation in using powerful and precise radioactive drugs to treat people with complex cancers.  

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic has treated the first person in the U.S. using a novel radioactive medicine for advanced breast cancer as part of an international multisite clinical trial.

The medicine used in this clinical trial contains actinium-225, a highly potent alpha-emitting radiopharmaceutical therapy that was first developed for a subtype of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, which are rare and can form in the pancreas and the gastrointestinal tract. The alpha-emitting radiopharmaceutical therapy is intended to work by passing through the blood to stick to cancer cells, delivering powerful and precise radiation without harming healthy cells.

The Mayo Clinic researchers are the first to apply this therapy in America to a patient with metastatic breast cancer. The phase 1b/2 open-label trial is being conducted at all three academic Mayo Clinic sites in Rochester, Minnesota; Phoenix; Jacksonville, Florida; and approximately 20 other sites across the U.S. The first person treated was at Mayo Clinic in Florida.

The principal investigator at Mayo Clinic is Geoffrey Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of radiology and a leader in radiopharmaceutical therapies. He says these are innovative cancer treatments that use radioactive medicines designed to target and kill cancer cells with high precision.

Mayo Clinic has nearly 20 active radiopharmaceutical therapy clinical trials, with 10 more preparing to launch, targeting many different types of cancer. Mayo Clinic in Rochester treats more patients with modern radiopharmaceutical therapies, such as lutetium dotatate for neuroendocrine cancers and lutetium PSMA for prostate cancers, than any other center in the world.

Lutetium dotatate and lutetium PSMA are beta-emitting radiopharmaceuticals. They use beta particles, which are tiny subatomic particles, to radiate at a low level. In contrast, alpha-emitting radiopharmaceuticals use alpha particles that are 8,000 times more massive than beta particles, and travel only three cell diameters after they are emitted from the therapy.

"This means alpha emitters can deliver a much more powerful impact over a shorter distance. If you consider killing a cancer cell is like knocking down a brick wall, then the difference is like throwing a 10-pound dumbbell (beta) at the wall versus a fully loaded Mack truck (alpha)," says Dr. Johnson. "The alpha emitter's potential lies in its power and in its ability to precisely kill even a single cancer cell without injuring surrounding healthy tissue, making it a next-generation therapy."

In preclinical studies, data indicates actinium-225 DOTATATE that targets the somatostatin receptor subtype 2expression demonstrated feasibility and potential efficacy for treatment of ER+ metastatic breast cancer in the laboratory. The drug was developed by RayzeBio Inc., a Bristol Myers Squibb Company, the sponsor of the active phase 1b/2 clinical trial.

Study Title: Phase 1b/2 Open-label Trial of 225Ac-DOTATATE (RYZ101) in Subjects with Estrogen Receptor-positive (ER+), Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2)-negative, Locally Advanced and Unresectable or Metastatic Breast Cancer Expressing Somatostatin Receptors (SSTRs) and Progressed After Antibody-drug Conjugates And/or Chemotherapy (TRACY-1)

• Descriptor: Phase 1b/2 open-label trial of 225Ac-DOTATATE (RYZ101) alone and with pembrolizumab in subjects with ER+, HER2-negative unresectable or metastatic breast cancer expressing SSTRs.
• Sponsor: RayzeBio Inc.
• Link: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06590857

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and to providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Brittany Cordeiro, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic again leads U.S. News & World Report’s "Best Hospitals" rankings for 2025-2026 – the 36^th time since the rankings began. This sustained distinction includes a place on the Honor Roll and more specialties ranked in the top three than any other hospital in the nation.

"We are proud to once again be recognized as a leader in healthcare, a reflection of the unwavering commitment of our staff and their dedication to excellence, innovation and putting patients first," says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., Mayo Clinic president and CEO. "This honor reinforces our continued focus on raising the standard of what’s possible in medicine."

This recognition comes as Mayo Clinic continues to make major investments in shaping the future of healthcare through Mayo Clinic Platform and Bold. Forward. Unbound., which seamlessly blends physical spaces with digital technologies to create new healthcare experiences for patients and staff. This includes integrating artificial intelligence, robotics and automation with a human touch to address patients’ unmet and evolving needs.

U.S. News & World Report’s Honor Roll features the top 20 U.S. hospitals that earn the most points across 15 specialties and 22 procedures and conditions. Mayo Clinic is the only healthcare organization with two hospitals on the list—Mayo Clinic in Arizona marks its ninth consecutive year and Mayo Clinic in Rochester again earned the highest overall point total.

State and regional rankings

Mayo Clinic again ranks No. 1 in the U.S. News state rankings for Minnesota and Arizona and continues to be the top hospital in the Jacksonville metro area. Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, has also been recognized as a "Best Regional Hospital" in Northwestern Wisconsin.

"Being top-ranked year after year isn’t just about accolades – it’s about consistent, reliable excellence," said Sean Dowdy, M.D., chief value officer at Mayo Clinic. "Real quality means providing world-class care, even under pressure and through change. Our teams stay focused on what matters most: the patient."

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and to providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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PHOENIX — Mayo Clinic in Arizona is again named the No. 1 hospital in the state and one of the nation's top hospitals in U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals" 2025-2026 rankings. This is the 13^th consecutive year Mayo Clinic in Arizona has been ranked the top hospital in the state. For the ninth year, it also appeared on the magazine’s national Best Hospitals Honor Roll.

"We are honored to be recognized as the top hospital in Arizona and one of the top 20 hospitals in the country. This recognition is a testament to the dedication, expertise, and compassion of all our staff. It is through their daily pursuit of excellence that we are able to deliver the highest level of serious and complex care," says Richard Gray, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

Mayo Clinic in Arizona has also ranked among the top 50 hospitals in the country across 10 specialties and claimed the highest position in the state for each of these areas:

• Cancer
• Cardiology, Heart & Vascular Surgery
• Diabetes & Endocrinology
• Ear, Nose & Throat
• Gastroenterology and GI Surgery
• Geriatrics
• Neurology & Neurosurgery
• Orthopedics
• Pulmonology & Lung Surgery
• Urology

Most of the U.S. News & World Report "Best Hospitals" specialties are measured on factors such as patient experience, patient survival, discharge outcomes, nurse staffing, advanced technology, patient services and reputation as determined by other medical experts. The remaining three specialties – ophthalmology, psychiatry and rheumatology – are measured on reputation only.

Mayo Clinic is a destination for patients seeking hope for serious and complex medical conditions. More than 155,000 patients come to Mayo's Arizona campuses from all 50 states and more than 60 countries each year. Mayo employs 11,000 staff in Arizona and trains the healthcare leaders of the future through allied health certificate programs, medical degrees, and post-graduate training programs as part of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

In 2025, Mayo Clinic announced Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Arizona, a $1.9 billion strategic investment enabling new care concepts, physical spaces and integrated technologies on the Phoenix campus, further advancing Mayo's position as a Category-of-One destination for serious and complex care in the Southwest and beyond.

Mayo Clinic's Transplant Center in Arizona is the top transplant center in the U.S., performing more adult solid organ transplants than any other center in the country. In 2023, transplant teams performed a triple transplant (heart, kidney and liver), and in 2024, Mayo surgeons accomplished one of the first larynx transplants in the country. In 2025, the hospital announced the launch of its new Lung Transplant Program in Arizona, establishing the final cornerstone in its status as a comprehensive, fully integrated adult transplant center.

This year, Mayo Clinic in Arizona was awarded the "Triple Crown" by Healthgrades, one of only 10 hospitals in the country to earn simultaneous top scores for patient safety, experience and outcomes. The Leapfrog Group has recognized Mayo Clinic in Arizona’s patient safety with an A-grade in every grading cycle it has offered.

Since 1987, Mayo Clinic in Arizona has continued to transform healthcare through exceptional patient care, education and research. Development is now underway on Discovery Oasis, a 120-acre biotechnology innovation hub that will co-locate companies from around the world with clinicians, researchers, and educators to advance cures. The design supports a unique collaborative ecosystem that invites innovation and incorporates research facilities, biomanufacturing, and digital and artificial intelligence-based health solutions infrastructure.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Marty Hames, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayo Clinic is ranked the No. 1 hospital in metro Jacksonville in U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals" 2025-2026 rankings. Mayo Clinic in Florida achieved significant gains in the publication's rankings, earning national recognition in 10 specialties and ranking as the top provider in six specialties within Florida.

"We are proud to once again be recognized as top-ranked in more specialties than any other hospital in Florida by U.S. News & World Report," says Kent Thielen, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida. "This recognition is a testament to our teams' unwavering commitment – day in and day out – to providing innovative, differentiated patient care of the highest quality."

Mayo Clinic in Florida ranked nationally among the top 50 hospitals in these 10 specialties; an asterisk indicates the ones in which it is top-ranked in Florida:

• Cancer
• Cardiology, Heart & Vascular Surgery
• Diabetes and Endocrinology
• Ear, Nose and Throat
• Gastroenterology and GI Surgery*
• Geriatrics*
• Neurology and Neurosurgery*
• Orthopedics*
• Pulmonology and Lung Surgery*
• Urology*

Mayo Clinic in Florida provides diagnosis, medical treatment, surgery and care for more than 175,000 patients each year in 50 specialty areas.

In 1986, Mayo Clinic brought its team approach to caring from Rochester, Minnesota, to the Southeast when it opened a clinic in Jacksonville. Today, the 602-acre campus offers a medical destination for patients who travel from all 50 states and more than 80 countries. Its Florida operation has more than 10,000 staff members.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education, and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.   

Media contact:

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic ranked No. 1 hospital in Jacksonville by U.S. News & World Report, with most top-ranked specialties in the state appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic took a pivotal step toward integrating AI solutions in the clinical setting with the deployment of NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD with NVIDIA DGX B200 systems, an advanced infrastructure that provides state-of-the-art AI compute capabilities.

Mayo Clinic and NVIDIA collaborated to enable the rapid innovation and development of foundation models in support of Mayo’s platform approach to healthcare, contributing to Mayo Clinic’s Bold. Forward. strategy and new innovations for generative AI solutions and digital pathology. These innovations are delivering new insights as Mayo is driving to improve patient outcomes and transform healthcare.

"Our aspiration for AI is to meaningfully improve patient outcomes by detecting disease early enough to intervene. What was once a hypothetical — 'If only we had the right data' — is now becoming reality thanks to AI and advanced computing," says Matthew Callstrom, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the Department of Strategy and leader of Mayo Clinic’s Generative Artificial Intelligence Program.

The advanced computing infrastructure will initially support foundation model development for pathomics, drug discovery and precision medicine.

The NVIDIA Blackwell-powered DGX SuperPOD is built to efficiently process large, high-resolution imaging essential for AI foundation model training. Designed for speed and scalability, the Blackwell infrastructure enables Mayo Clinic to accelerate pathology slide analysis and foundation model development — reducing four weeks of work to just one, ultimately improving patient outcomes. This advanced computing infrastructure will also advance Mayo Clinic’s generative AI and multimodal digital pathology foundation model development.

Mayo Clinic, in partnership with Aignostics, developed a leading pathology foundation model called Atlas, trained on more than 1.2 million histopathology whole-slide images. With Atlas, Mayo Clinic clinicians and researchers can improve accuracy and reduce administrative tasks. The new computing capabilities will accelerate and improve clinical model development.

"This compute power, coupled with Mayo’s unparalleled clinical expertise and platform data of over 20 million digitized pathology slides, will allow Mayo to build on its existing foundation models. We’re transforming healthcare by quickly and safely developing innovative AI solutions that can improve patient outcomes and enable clinicians to dedicate more time to patient care while also accelerating commercial affiliations with other industry leaders," says Jim Rogers, CEO of Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology.

Journalists: Media kit with images for download available here.

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About Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology
Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology facilitates the global scaling of digital pathology solutions to benefit clinicians and patients, advancing key areas such as scanning, storage, foundation model development and the creation and deployment of cutting-edge algorithms. Working with Mayo Clinic innovators and external collaborators, Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology is wholly owned by Mayo Clinic and seeks to incubate and start impactful companies while investing in and acquiring existing companies, spurring innovation across pathology.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic deploys NVIDIA Blackwell infrastructure to drive generative AI solutions in medicine appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Lake Regional Health System and Mayo Clinic Platform announced that the health system in Osage Beach, Missouri, has joined the Mayo Clinic Care Network, a select group of independent healthcare providers carefully vetted by Mayo Clinic and granted special access to Mayo's clinical, educational, research and operational knowledge, expertise and resources. 

Lake Regional began collaborating with Mayo Clinic Platform on clinical quality improvement in 2023 and has worked to enhance care delivery standards, particularly focusing on specialty care access and coordination for the unique needs of the Lake of the Ozarks community, including both year-round residents and seasonal visitors.

"This clinical collaboration is a game-changer for our region and a bold step forward in our mission to provide exceptional, world-class care," says Kevin McRoberts, CEO of Lake Regional Health System. "We are proud of Lake Regional's quality journey and the remarkable team we have built. Joining Mayo Clinic Care Network gives our talented physicians unprecedented access to leading-edge resources, including additional clinical expertise and innovative treatments. It means our patients can receive the very best care available — right here at home, surrounded by the people and community who matter most."

Through its proven success in clinical excellence initiatives, Lake Regional has demonstrated its ability to implement and sustain quality improvements across multiple facilities. This foundation enables its healthcare professionals to now integrate Mayo Clinic's advanced clinical expertise with its established regional healthcare leadership, delivering enhanced outcomes for patients throughout the Lake of the Ozarks region.

"This collaboration demonstrates Lake Regional's unwavering commitment to continuous quality improvement, and it positions them perfectly to serve their unique patient population with Mayo Clinic-level expertise," says Mark V. Larson, M.D., medical director, Mayo Clinic Care Network.

Through Lake Regional Health System's membership in the Mayo Clinic Care Network, its healthcare professionals have access to Mayo Clinic Platform-enabled clinical solutions and services, including:

• AskMayoExpert: A point-of-care tool offering concise clinical information on hundreds of medical conditions, including medical protocols, treatment recommendations and medical references. The database can be used wherever healthcare is provided.
• eConsults: Connections to Mayo Clinic specialists for second opinions on specific patient cases.
• eBoards: Live, scheduled video conferences that enable medical teams at Lake Regional Health System to review and discuss complex cases with a Mayo Clinic multidisciplinary panel and other healthcare professionals in the Mayo Clinic Care Network.
• Healthcare consulting: Access to Mayo Clinic's extensive experience, knowledge and subspecialty expertise to achieve clinical, operational and business goals.

Staff from Lake Regional Health System can use Mayo Clinic educational materials designed for patients. They also can access opportunities for professional development and continuous medical education.

Lake Regional Health System and other Mayo Clinic Care Network members remain independent and join an ecosystem of more than 60 healthcare organizations around the world.

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About Lake Regional Health System
Lake Regional Health System is a nonprofit organization that provides comprehensive healthcare services to residents and visitors throughout the mid-Missouri region. The hospital is a Level II Stroke Center, Level II STEMI (heart attack) Center and Level III Trauma Center. Lake Regional also provides a wide range of specialties, including cancer care, heart care, orthopedics and women's health. Plus, Lake Regional operates primary care clinics, Express Care walk-in clinics, rehab therapy clinics, hospice and retail pharmacies. To learn more, visit lakeregional.com.

About Mayo Clinic Platform
Founded on Mayo Clinic's dedication to patient-centered care, Mayo Clinic Platform enables new knowledge, new solutions and new technologies through collaborations with health technology innovators to create a healthier world. To learn more, visit Mayo Clinic Platform at www.mayoclinicplatform.org.

About Mayo Clinic 
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news. 

Media contacts:  

• Kaitlin Haar, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu
• Jennifer Bethurem, VP of Public Affairs, Lake Regional Health System, jbethurem@lakeregional.com

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HAINAN, China and ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic and Leczcore Hainan Mellsser Hospital, a member of the Leczcore Group, have announced that the hospital is the newest member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. This formal relationship marks an important step in Leczcore's mission to provide world-class, patient-centered care to communities in Hainan and the surrounding area.

Leczcore Hainan Mellsser Hospital is one of three hospitals operated by Leczcore Group, which also oversees wellness centers dedicated to postoperative recovery and chronic disease management. As a Mayo Clinic Care Network member, Leczcore Hainan Mellsser Hospital gains access to Mayo Clinic's extensive clinical knowledge and expertise to enhance care.

"Becoming a Mayo Clinic Care Network member is a realization of Leczcore Hainan Mellsser Hospital's concept of 'boundaryless medical care,'" says Leczcore President Liu Xiangli. "We have not only introduced advanced medical technology, but more importantly, we are incorporating the patient-first service values ​​of Mayo Clinic, allowing our members to enjoy world-class medical services without having to go abroad."

Through the Mayo Clinic Care Network, physicians at Leczcore Hainan Mellsser Hospital will have access to tools and services such as AskMayoExpert and eConsults, which enable Leczcore doctors to consult directly with Mayo Clinic specialists when needed. This connection supports Leczcore's strengths in oncology screening, executive health and chronic disease management, while opening new opportunities for:

• Enhancing clinical standards and operational processes.
• Advancing quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.
• Strengthening nursing leadership, capability and training.
• Expanding patient education and improving overall experience.
• Establishing a trusted care pathway for the most serious and complex cases through direct referrals to Mayo Clinic destination centers in Rochester, Minnesota; Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona; and Jacksonville, Florida.

"We are honored to welcome Leczcore Hainan Mellsser Hospital to the Mayo Clinic Care Network," says Eric Moore, M.D., medical director, Mayo Clinic International, and chair of Head and Neck Surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "Leczcore Hainan Mellsser Hospital's focus on advancing preventive care, recovery and chronic condition management aligns closely with our values. We look forward to working together to expand access to high-quality care and deliver meaningful outcomes for patients in Hainan and the surrounding area."

The Mayo Clinic Care Network includes carefully selected independent organizations worldwide that are committed to working together to improve the quality and value of healthcare. Members retain their independence while benefiting from Mayo Clinic's decades of experience and best practices.

Through membership in the Mayo Clinic Care Network physicians have access to Mayo Clinic clinical tools and services, including:

AskMayoExpert

• This point-of-care tool offers concise clinical information on hundreds of medical conditions and includes medical protocols, treatment recommendations and medical references. The database can be used wherever healthcare is provided.

eBoards

• These live, scheduled video conferences enable medical teams at member hospitals to review and discuss complex cases with a Mayo Clinic multidisciplinary panel and other doctors in the Mayo Clinic Care Network.

Healthcare Consulting

• Member hospitals have access to Mayo's extensive experience, knowledge and subspecialty expertise to attain clinical, operational and business goals.

Leczcore Hainan Mellsser Hospital and other members of the Mayo Clinic Care Network remain independent. Created in 2011, the Mayo Clinic Care Network has more than 45 member organizations across the U.S. and in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

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About Leczcore Hainan Mellsser Hospital
 
Hainan Mellsser Hospital is located in Lecheng, Hainan — the only national-level International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone approved by the State Council. It benefits from the exceptional timing advantage of the State Council's special Nine Policies for Lecheng, the geographic advantage of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and the "human synergy" advantage of bringing together world-class medical experts and elite management professionals.

The hospital features a diverse range of departments, including Health Screening & Imaging, International Medicine, Precision Medicine, Reproductive & Anti-aging Medicine, Customized Anti-aging Services, and Five-Dimensional Cardiac Wellness. With top-tier international medical services, highly precise diagnostic equipment and renowned global medical specialists, Hainan Mellsser Hospital is committed to delivering one-stop, high-quality healthcare services to members both domestically and internationally.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contacts:

• Qian Chen, Mellsser Hospital Branding, chenqian-83@163.com
• Elizabeth Baxter, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a key reason some cancer patients relapse after receiving chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T cell therapy. Over time, the engineered immune cells age and lose their ability to fight cancer.  

Published in Molecular Cancer, the study identifies this aging process, known as senescence, as a previously unrecognized mechanism of CAR-T failure.   

The researchers also showed that senescence is influenced by how CAR-T cells are engineered. Certain intracellular features — such as how the cell recognizes cancer and how strongly it activates — can overwork the cells. The researchers found that if the activation signal is too intense or prolonged, it can push CAR-T cells into premature aging.  

The discovery may guide the development of next-generation CAR-T therapies that last longer and are more effective across a broader range of cancers.  

"This is one of the most clinically relevant discoveries we've made because it doesn't just explain the cause of relapse, it gives us a biological target to possibly prevent it," says Saad Kenderian, M.B., Ch.B., a principal investigator and hematologist at Mayo Clinic.  

CAR-T therapy reprograms a patient's own immune cells to recognize and destroy cancer. It has led to long-term remission for patients, including some with aggressive or treatment-resistant diseases. But many patients eventually relapse, and the causes have remained poorly understood. 

Modeling CAR-T cell stress over time 

To investigate why CAR-T therapy can fail, the Mayo team developed a novel lab model that simulates long-term biological stress, offering a clearer view of how the engineered cells behave after infusion. Over time, some CAR-T cells lost their ability to multiply and attack cancer. Specifically, they showed hallmark signs of senescence, including distinct genetic changes.  

The researchers found that senescence occurred more often in CAR-T cells built with a signaling feature, known as 4-1BB, which affects how the cells respond to cancer. In comparison, cells designed with an alternative domain, called CD28, were less affected by aging. These cells activate more quickly and persist for a shorter time, reducing the cumulative stress that drives senescence.

The researchers confirmed the results in multiple laboratory models and validated them in patient samples.

Engineering CAR-T cells for longevity 

That discovery was driven in part by the work of Ismail Can, Ph.D., who helped lead the molecular analysis behind the finding. 

"Efforts to make CAR-T cell therapy more durable will likely fail without fully understanding the reasons behind CAR-T cell failure. This study represents a significant step toward understanding why CAR-T cells fail," says Dr. Can, first author of the study and a senior research fellow at Mayo Clinic’s T Cell Engineering Laboratory. "By identifying the early molecular triggers of senescence, we can begin to refine CAR-T design to potentially improve long-term function and reduce relapse." 

The findings highlight a new direction for CAR-T research, with potential implications not only for blood cancers but also for expanding cell therapy into solid tumors.  

The study builds on Dr. Kenderian's broader efforts to identify resistance mechanisms and design more durable and personalized immunotherapies.   

This work was supported in part by Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Eagles 5th District Cancer Telethon Funds for Cancer Research, the State of Minnesota, and benefactors Georgia and Michael Michelson. For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding information, review the study.    

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About Mayo Clinic 
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news. 

Media contact:  

• Sharon Theimer, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu 

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