Former NFL player sentenced to 16 years for $197M Medicare fraud; testosterone may slow brain tumor growth in men; GLP-1 drugs linked to improved breast cancer survival – Morning Medical Update

Former NFL player sentenced to 16 years in $197M Medicare fraud scheme

Joel French, a former Ole Miss All-American and NFL tight end, was convicted in February and sentenced Thursday.

A former NFL player and college football star has been sentenced to 196 months (over 16 years) in federal prison for his role in a nearly $200 million Medicare and CHAMPVA fraud scheme. Joel Rufus French, 47, of Amory, Mississippi, a unanimous All-American tight end at Ole Miss in 1998 who went on to brief stints with the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers, used overseas call centers to pressure elderly Americans and veterans' families into accepting medically unnecessary orthotic braces, with some call recordings allegedly altered to fabricate patient consent. French paid kickbacks to sham telemedicine companies for signed doctors' orders from physicians who never examined the patients and used straw owners and false documents to conceal his ownership of eight durable medical equipment (DME) supply companies from Medicare.

Prosecutors also said he billed federal programs for patients who were deceased, amputees or suffering from cognitive impairment. In addition to his prison sentence, French was ordered to pay more than $110 million in restitution and forfeit approximately $17 million in seized assets.

Testosterone may slow brain tumor growth in men, Cleveland Clinic study finds

Men with glioblastoma who were taking supplemental testosterone had a 38% lower risk of death.

Cleveland Clinic researchers analyzing data from more than 1,300 men with glioblastoma found that those receiving supplemental testosterone for unrelated reasons had a 38% lower risk of death than those who were not — a finding that, combined with supporting laboratory experiments, has prompted calls for clinical trials, according to a study published in Nature and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). When androgens were removed in preclinical models, the brain's stress hormone system went into overdrive, creating an immunosuppressive environment that allowed tumors to grow largely unchecked. The effect was not seen in female models.

The findings upend a widely held assumption that testosterone contributes to glioblastoma's higher incidence and worse outcomes in men. Researchers also flagged that androgen deprivation therapy, a standard tool in other cancers, may actually be harmful in glioblastoma patients.

“This outcome is a welcome surprise and may potentially offer a lead for new treatments for a kind of cancer that is deadlier in men,” said Anthony Letai, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIH’s National Cancer Institute.

GLP-1 drugs linked to better survival and lower recurrence in breast cancer patients

A retrospective study of more than 840,000 breast cancer patients found lower rates of death and cancer recurrence among those who used GLP-1 medications.

GLP-1 receptor agonists were associated with lower overall mortality and a significantly reduced risk of cancer recurrence over 10 years in breast cancer patients who also had obesity or type 2 diabetes, according to a large retrospective study published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center analyzed electronic health records from more than 840,000 breast cancer patients diagnosed between 2006 and 2023. The findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting GLP-1 drugs may have benefits beyond weight loss and blood sugar control, though the biological mechanisms behind any cancer-related benefit remain unclear.

“This study suggests that GLP-1 drugs may offer protective benefits potentially improving survival and recurrence risk in some female patients with breast cancer — whether this is related to weight control, improve cardiovascular health or other mechanisms remains to be studied,” said study senior author Bernard F. Fuemmeler, Ph.D., M.P.H., of VCU Massey. Randomized clinical trials are needed before the findings can inform treatment decisions, the authors said.