Oct 22nd, 2021 - Low androgen levels appear to be linked to the development of posttransplantation diabetes mellitus (PTDM) in male kidney transplant recipients, new research suggests. London_England/Thinkstock Among 243 men who did not have diabetes prior to undergoing kidney transplantation, levels of both dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and testosterone were inversely related to the risk for developing diabetes th.

Oct 22nd, 2021 - The frontline combination of trifluridine/tipiracil (TAS-102; Lonsurf) and bevacizumab (Avastin) was not found to result in a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) over capecitabine and bevacizumab in patients with unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) who are not eligible to receive intensive therapy, missing the primary end point of the phase 3 SOLSTICE trial (...

Oct 22nd, 2021 - Just months after FDA granted accelerated approval of its myeloma drug, Oncopeptides has pulled melphalan flufenamide (melflufen, Pepaxto) from the market. The decision followed an FDA hold on clinical trials of the drug after data from a confirmatory trial showed an increased mortality risk in patients treated with melflufen. The phase III OCEAN study compared melflufen plus dexamethasone and ...

Oct 22nd, 2021 - TOKYO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp is in talks to sell the Paris-based robotics business behind its Pepper android to Germany’s United Robotics Group, according to sources and documents reviewed by Reuters, scaling back a business it once touted as a major growth driver. The talks are ongoing and plans could change, said two sources familiar with the matter, who declined to be named ...

Oct 22nd, 2021 - The tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) cabozantinib (Cabometyx) showed promising activity against brain metastases from renal cell carcinoma (RCC), researchers reported. In a retrospective cohort study of 88 patients with RCC brain metastases, the intracranial response rate with cabozantinib was 55% (95% CI 36-73%) in those with progressing brain metastases without concomitant brain-directed local...

Oct 21st, 2021 - TG-1701 administered as monotherapy or in combination with ublituximab (TGTX-1101) and umbralisib (Ukoniq) demonstrated promising overall response rates (ORR) and with relatively few adverse events (AEs) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to lead author Chan Cheah, MBBS. He added that the agent is a more specific targeting BTK inhibitor which reduces off-target toxic...

Oct 21st, 2021 - Carrie Lenneman, MD, MSCI: In light of time, I’ll move to a couple of questions if you’re ready for that. Farrukh Awan, MD: Yes. Carrie Lenneman, MD, MSCI: The first one is, Have you seen low heart rate or bradycardia with ibrutinib? I can honestly say no, I have not seen that be a problem that wasn’t preidentified early. I don’t know what your experience is. Farrukh Awan, MD: I hav...

Oct 21st, 2021 - Some older folks discharged from the hospital left with a more intense -- and possibly unnecessary -- treatment regimen for their diabetes, according to findings from the VA health system. In a retrospective study of over 28,000 patients ages 65 and older with type 2 diabetes, about 11% were discharged with an intensified regimen, which seemed to yield a mixed bag of outcomes, as these patients...

Oct 20th, 2021 - Elacestrant (RAD1901) monotherapy improved progression-free survival over standard-of-care (SOC) treatment in patients with estrogen receptor (ER)–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, including those whose tumors harbored ESR1 mutations, meeting the primary end points of the phase 3 EMERALD trial (NCT03778931).1 Topline results from the trial also showed that the toxicity profile of the sele...

Oct 20th, 2021 - Key clinical point: In patients receiving high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) for acute hypoxemic respiratory failure associated with COVID-19, initiating awake prone positioning (proning) soon after HFNC may improve survival. Major finding: Initiating awake proning within 24 hours of HFNC was associated with lower mortality rates than late proning (26% vs 45%; P =.

Oct 20th, 2021 - A common genetic variant predicted poor outcomes from peritoneal dialysis, suggesting a potential factor for patient selection and treatment, researchers found. Variants in AQP1, the gene that encodes for a key water transport channel across the peritoneal membrane, were associated with decreased ultrafiltration while on peritoneal dialysis and a 70% increased risk of death or failure of that f...

Oct 20th, 2021 - Fluoroquinolones were associated with a modest uptick in sudden cardiac death (SCD) among people getting hemodialysis, though the benefits of these antibiotics may still outweigh their risks in this group, according to a study. SCD rates within 5 days of outpatient initiation of antibiotic therapy were 105.7 per 100,000 people prescribed levofloxacin or moxifloxacin, compared with 40.0 per 100,...

Oct 20th, 2021 - Adding apalutamide to abiraterone and prednisone improved radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS) in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology. The phase 3 ACIS study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02257736) included 982 men with mCRPC from 167 hospitals in 17 countries. The patients were randomly assig...

Oct 19th, 2021 - The bicycle toxin conjugates (BTCs) BT5528 and BT8009 have showcased preliminary signs of antitumor activity and encouraging tolerability when administered to patients with solid tumors such as urothelial cancer and ovarian cancer, according to findings from 2 early-phase trials.1 Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides controlled with small molecule scaffolds to form 2 loops that stabiliz...

Oct 19th, 2021 - A multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and adults (MIS-A) occurring after coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been identified; onset is ≈4–6 weeks after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (1–3). A case definition for MIS-A has been developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (4); MIS-A after vaccination is rare and remain...

Oct 19th, 2021 - Blastomyces dermatitidis, a dimorphic fungus, causes a localized or disseminated pyogranulomatous fungal infection called blastomycosis. Various descriptive studies have shown predominantly pulmonary, skin, bone, and genitourinary involvement (1). The clinical spectrum of blastomycosis is wide, ranging from subclinical infection to critical cases of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Retrospe...

Oct 19th, 2021 - Since the December 2019 beginning of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), there have been >180 million cases and >3.9 million deaths worldwide (1). Severe bacterial and fungal co-infections are a major concern with COVID-19 and increase disease mortality (2). The genus Bordetella comprises >10 known species of small, ...

Oct 19th, 2021 - After half of the adult population in the United States has been fully vaccinated against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to date (1), we seem to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, after a 1.5-year battle with the most unprecedented public health crisis in modern history. We are reckoning with devastating mid-pandemic chaos caused by avoidable mistakes that have added to adverse out...

Oct 18th, 2021 - Colorectal cancer (CRC) metastases from right-sided primary tumors and CRC liver metastases had higher rates of local failure following stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), a single-institution retrospective study found. Among 130 patients with oligometastatic CRC, lesions stemming from right-sided CRCs were more than twice as likely to recur locally following SABR, as compared with left-...

Oct 18th, 2021 - The combination of sintilimab (Tyvyt), a bevacizumab biosimilar injection (Byvasda), and chemotherapy resulted in a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with EGFR-mutated, nonsquamous, non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that as progressed following treatment with an EGFR TKI, meeting the primary end point of the phase 3 ORIENT-31 trial (NCT03802240).1 Data fro...