Feature Channels: Clinical Trials

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El Cancer Research Institute (CRI), organización sin fines de lucro liderando investigación revolucionaria sobre el poder de nuestro sistema inmunológico para controlar y potencialmente curar todos los tipos de cáncer, ofrecerá su primera Conferencia Virtual CRI de Inmunoterapia para Pacientes con Cáncer 2021 totalmente en español, el 16 de septiembre de 2021, de 2 a 5 p.m. (hora del este).

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The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a nonprofit organization spearheading transformative research to harness the immune system’s power to control and potentially cure all cancers, will offer its first-ever Virtual Cancer Immunotherapy Summit in Spanish on September 16, 2021, 2-5 p.m. ET.

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In a real-world trial, a team of clinician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have demonstrated that tests of self-collected saliva provided comparable results to tests performed by trained healthcare professionals using NP swabs.

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Expert Q&A: Do breakthrough cases mean we will soon need COVID boosters? The extremely contagious Delta variant continues to spread, prompting mask mandates, proof of vaccination, and other measures. Media invited to ask the experts about these and related topics.

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The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has been awarded $12.75 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to support basic, clinical, translational and prevention research efforts, including $3 million for a new project to build clinical trial network infrastructure across Texas. MD Anderson also received $3 million for early clinical investigator awards, $750,000 for high-impact, high-risk awards and $6 million for faculty recruitments.

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Regardless of COVID vaccination and past infection status, the real measurement of immunity for COVID is the quantity and quality of antibodies each person has. Researchers at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore are offering a glimpse at how widespread, rapid antibody testing may be conducted in the near future. This new testing methodology is 99.5% effective, is easy to use, works and looks like a home pregnancy test and yields results in 15-20 minutes allowing for mass testing, particularly amongst children, older adults, and other populations resistant to blood draws. The researchers say the testing may be the easiest, fastest way to determine if someone needs a booster shot.

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In a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiative, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine was selected for a nationwide Liver Cirrhosis Network. Researchers in the network’s 10 academic medical centers will share patient data and launch clinical trials of a class of medications that could prevent progression of the disease, which causes irreversible scarring of the liver, and complications such as liver cancer.

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Wellcome Trust has provided a grant to the National University of Singapore to establish the Asian Clinical Research Network to conduct antimicrobial clinical research to develop the most effective ways to treat and prevent life-threatening drug-resistant infections. This will be the first clinical trial network established in Asia focusing on drug-resistant infections.

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Combining a histone deacetylase inhibitor drug with immunotherapy agents is safe, and may benefit some patients with advanced cancers that have not responded to traditional therapy, according to results of a phase 1 clinical trial led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and several other centers including University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Yale Cancer Center and City of Hope in Los Angeles, which participated in study enrollment, and the University of Southern California and University College Cork in Ireland, which collaborated on analysis of the data.

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The study enrolled 120 transplant patients between May 25th and June 3rd. None of them had COVID previously and all of them had received two doses of the Moderna vaccine. Half of the participants received a third shot of the vaccine (at the 2-month mark after their second dose) and the other half received placebo. The primary outcome was based on antibody level greater than 100 U/ml against the spike protein of the virus. In the placebo group - after three doses (where the third dose was placebo), the response rate was only 18% whereas in the Moderna three-dose group, the response rate was 55%.

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The study enrolled 120 transplant patients between May 25th and June 3rd. None of them had COVID previously and all of them had received two doses of the Moderna vaccine. Half of the participants received a third shot of the vaccine (at the 2-month mark after their second dose) and the other half received placebo. The primary outcome was based on antibody level greater than 100 U/ml against the spike protein of the virus. In the placebo group - after three doses (where the third dose was placebo), the response rate was only 18% whereas in the Moderna three-dose group, the response rate was 55%.

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Building on its success with previous COVID-19 vaccine studies, the University of Kentucky has been selected as a site for a trial to assess dose levels of a Johnson & Johnson booster shot.

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Cancer clinical trials (CCTs) provide patients an opportunity to receive experimental drugs, tests, and/or procedures that can lead to remissions. For some, a CCT may seem like their only option. Yet little is known about the experiences of patient participants who withdraw from CCTs.

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• Pooled results from phase 3 clinical trials demonstrate that roxadustat is efficacious and may be comparable to placebo in studies done to date for treating anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease who do not require dialysis.

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• In a clinical trial of individuals at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes, which is the leading cause of kidney disease, vitamin D supplementation did not have significant effects on kidney health. • As participants were not selected according to baseline vitamin D levels, investigators cannot exclude a kidney benefit for individuals with vitamin D deficiency.

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Scientists at Case Western Reserve University have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify new biomarkers for breast cancer that can predict whether the cancer will return after treatment—and which can be identified from routinely acquired tissue biopsy samples of early-stage breast cancer.

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A survey of participants in a clinical trial for CommunityRx, a community resource referral intervention, found that nearly half of users reported sharing their personalized health resources with at least one other person.

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The investigators discovered that in moderately ill patients full-dose heparin reduced the need for organ support compared to those who received lower-dose heparin.

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DALLAS – August 4, 2021 – Researchers at UT Southwestern announced successful results of a clinical trial for a commonly prescribed weight-loss drug called liraglutide. In adults who are overweight or have obesity combined with high cardiovascular risk, once-daily liraglutide combined with lifestyle interventions significantly lowered two types of fat that have been associated with risk to heart health: visceral fat and ectopic fat.

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A clinical trial found liraglutide, an injectable weight loss medication, reduced intra-abdominal and liver fat in participants more than placebo in addition to a low-calorie diet and increased physical activity.

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Scientists using the Advanced Photon Source have discovered that a drug used to fight tumors in animals might be effective against many types of coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2.

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Irvine, Calif., Aug. 2, 2021 — From cutting-edge research for advancing precision medicine to an innovative new effort for improving public water infrastructure to increase conservation, University of California, Irvine scholars, scientists and physicians are blazing new paths to help change the world. And their impact keeps growing.

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With overdose rates involving cocaine soaring nearly 27% in 2020, researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) hope that a clinical trial combining a medication approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help prevent relapse in cocaine use disorder patients.

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People living in the South, known as the Stroke Belt, are not only at a greater risk of having strokes, but the region is also associated with higher stroke mortality. The link between high blood pressure and stroke is well-known, and lowering blood pressure reduces stroke risk. But how can blood pressure be most effectively managed among stroke survivors, and is the use of telehealth the most effective strategy?

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Cardiovascular physicians with UC San Diego Health have joined an international clinical trial utilizing a new Extravascular Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (EV ICD) system to help treat sudden cardiac arrest.

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Results from a large phase 3 noninferiority clinical trial definitively showed that vincristine and dexamethasone pulses can be eliminated in patients with low-risk disease. The findings were published today in The Lancet Oncology.

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Chula Pharmacy prepares to test “Baiya Vaccine” a Thai vaccine against COVID–19 by “Baiya Phytofarm“, a Chula startup. The vaccines have been produced at the first plant in Asia that manufactures plant–based vaccines for humans. Clinical trials with volunteers and the research for the second–generation vaccine to fight the virus variants are to commence in September 2021.

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Individuals with severe tricuspid valve regurgitation, in which the valve between the two right heart chambers closes incorrectly, may be eligible for a new clinical trial to treat the condition.

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For adults with type 2 diabetes, pairing basal insulin with continuous glucose monitoring improved blood sugar and quality of life.

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Researchers are the first to model COVID-19 completion versus cessation in clinical trials using machine learning algorithms and ensemble learning. They collected 4,441 COVID-19 trials from ClinicalTrials.gov to build a testbed with 693 dimensional features created to represent each clinical trial. These computational methods can predict whether a COVID-19 clinical trial will be completed or terminated, withdrawn or suspended. Stakeholders can leverage the predictions to plan resources, reduce costs, and minimize the time of the clinical study.

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Researchers are using computer models to simulate COVID-19 infections on a cellular level - the basic structural level of the human body.

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A recently launched Phase IIb randomized clinical trial, led by Sunjay Kaushal, MD, PhD, at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, uses donor stem cells injected into the patient’s heart during surgery, which is expected to improve right ventricular function of children born with a congenital heart disease called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Based on a decade of Dr. Kaushal’s pioneering lab research, clinical experience in adults and positive safety results in the Phase I trial, this stem cell-based strategy promises to extend life expectancy for these children.

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Daniel Catenacci, MD, a physician-scientist and associate professor of medicine at UChicago Medicine, has received the National Cancer Institute (NCI) 2021 Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award (CCITLA).

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Scientists from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have proposed a new method for designing phase II clinical trials and have created a corresponding software to implement the approach.

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WCG today announced the acquisition of Intrinsic Imaging, a leading global provider of medical imaging core lab services.

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Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine describe a new approach that uses machine learning to hunt for disease targets and then predicts whether a drug is likely to receive FDA approval.

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The Alzheimer's Association is pleased with the announcement today that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revised the prescribing label for Aduhelm™ (aducanumab).

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Registration opens today for the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO) 63rd Annual Meeting, which will return to an in-person conference at McCormick Place West in Chicago, October 24-27, 2021. Media resources and registration are available at www.astro.org/astro2021press, and general registration is available at www.astro.org/annualmeeting.

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Early 2020 saw the world break into what has been described as a "war-like situation": a pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the likes of which majority of the living generations across most of the planet have not ever seen.

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Researchers at UC San Diego Health have launched a pair of clinical trials to study the immune response of COVID-19 vaccinated transplant recipients of bone marrow and solid organs, such as the heart, lung, liver and kidney.

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Researchers have identified a new treatment candidate that appears to not only halt neurodegenerative symptoms in mouse models of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, but also reverse the effects of the disorders.

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects about 7% of children, with a two out of three chance of persisting into adulthood.

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A new approach using precisely targeted, high-dose radiation to treat invasive kidney cancer proves safe, based on a clinical trial by the UT Southwestern Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center’s kidney cancer program. The study, published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, could offer new hope for patients with a historically dismal condition.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is enrolling volunteers ages 12-69 to take part in an NIH funded study to assess reactions to the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in highly allergic individuals.

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Researchers report that about a quarter of localized prostate cancers may demonstrate immunologic traits that suggest a substantial number of patients with prostate cancer may benefit from immunotherapies.

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All Virtual Conference To Highlight PF Research And Quality Of Life Nov. 8-13

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Cedars-Sinai has been awarded $11.99 million by California's stem cell agency to launch a clinical trial testing a potential gene and stem cell therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

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The Prevent COVID U study, which launched in late March 2021 to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission among university students vaccinated with the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, has expanded beyond the university setting to enroll young adults ages 18 through 29 years and will now also include people in this age group who choose not to receive a vaccine.

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An ongoing international Alzheimer's clinical trial has found that one drug, gantenerumab, improved biomarkers of disease despite unclear cognitive effects, prompting study leaders to offer participants the option of continuing to receive the drug and participate in follow-up examinations as part of a so-called open label extension.

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The new medical director for the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center Office of Clinical Research is Dr. Edward Kim who steps into his new position e on July 1, 2021.