text_1: Researchers identify CTE biomarker that may lead to diagnosis while alive
text_2: The story focuses on a recent journal article that reported finding higher levels of the protein CCL11 in individuals who were posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) than was found in healthy individuals or in those who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, CTE can only be diagnosed after an individual has died, and this finding is presented as a first step toward developing a diagnostic tool for CTE that can be used while patients are still alive. This is a very preliminary basic science research study and probably not worth publicizing to a general audience. As the story explains, no one really knows how relevant this finding is yet, and if it will lead to anything clinicians can use. The story at least makes that very clear, and tapped an independent source to provide context. CTE has been a huge news topic lately because of its association with professional football players. For this reason, research related to CTE is likely to get a lot of attention from readers. This one certainly did, garnering coverage from several large news media organizations (the Los Angeles Times, for example, and the New York Post (which hailed the finding “monumental”). The totality of all this coverage on a preliminary finding could leave readers with the impression the research is closer to clinical use than it really is.