Curated News: Medical Meetings

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Patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have a four-fold increase in their risk of developing intermediate-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD) compared to people of the same age who are not infected with HIV, according to results from the Longitudinal Study of the Ocular Complications of AIDS (LSOCA) presented today at the 2015 ARVO Annual Meeting in Denver, CO.

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Scientists suggest exosomes released by the eye help speed up the drainage of fluid — offering another avenue to treat glaucoma. The research is being presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Denver, Colo.

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Risk of developing age-related macular degeneration higher in patients with AIDS Denver, Colo. – Patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have a four-fold increase in their risk of developing intermediate-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD) compared to people of the same age who are not infected with HIV, according to results from the Longitudinal Study of the Ocular Complications of AIDS (LSOCA). The research is being presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Denver, Colo.

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Researchers have identified a genetic link between schizophrenia and strabismus, a condition involving misalignment of the eyes. The research is being presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Denver, Colo.

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Researchers have determined that the three-dimensional organization of DNA in photoreceptor cells plays a crucial role in their function. The research is being presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Denver, Colo.

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Winner of the Medical Student Summer Research Fellowship Award, Michael Zhang, presented his research, M1 Macrophages Demonstrate a Superior Phagocytic Response Against Glioblastoma Multiforme Following Anti-CD47 Treatment.

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Investigators have discovered a new class of drugs that may more effectively treat retinoblastoma, a cancer of the retina that develops in children. The research is being presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Denver, Colo.

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Shifting detection to even earlier than currently used tests, scientists have used vection to identify mild glaucoma. The research is being presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Denver, Colo.

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Researchers have developed a new method of purifying stem cells that is faster, more efficient and less expensive than current methods for treating diseases of the retina. The research is being presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Denver, Colo. The new stem cell purification process involves growing stem cells on a special chip containing a computer system. Each stem cell is monitored closely, and the lower quality cells are removed as soon as they are identified.

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Patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can, in rare cases, experience bleeding on the brain that causes a type of stroke called intracerebral hemorrhage.

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Orthopedic surgeons are seeing an epidemic of anterior cruciate ligament injuries among young athletes, and a large number of patients who have surgery to reconstruct a torn ACL undergo a second knee operation later on, according to a study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS).

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Published in the May issue of the American Journal of Critical Care, the first national study to examine the ratio of nurse practitioners and physician assistants to patients may help hospital administrators better determine appropriate staffing levels in acute and critical care units.

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All-star Speakers Slated for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons’ Opening Ceremonies: Peyton Manning and Bill Walton to Open the 2015 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting in May.

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A listing of the awardees at the 2015 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting

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Christopher I. Shaffrey, MD, FAANS, will serve as the 2015-2016 Secretary of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), the organization announced during the 83rd AANS Annual Scientific Meeting,

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Deborah L. Benzil, MD, FAANS, will serve as the 2015-2016 Vice President of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), the organization announced during the 83rd AANS Annual Scientific Meeting, May 2-6, 2015, in Washington, D.C.

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Frederick A. Boop, MD, FAANS, has been named President-Elect of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS).

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The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) has named Texas-based neurosurgeon H. Hunt Batjer, MD, FAANS, as its 2015-2016 president.

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The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) has named Pennsylvania-based neurosurgeon Robert E. Harbaugh, MD, FAANS, as its 2015-2016 Immediate Past President.

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Charles Krauthammer, Jonathan Turley, Spencer Wells and Sally Satel to Speak at the 2015 American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting

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According to the American Cancer Society, in 2015 about 17,000 new cases of esophageal cancer will be diagnosed, and about 15,600 people will die from the disease. While the 5-year survival rate in the 1960s and 1970s was only about 5%, improvements in diagnosis, treatment, and management have led to improved survival. However, information is lacking about what happens to long-term survivors of esophageal cancer. A presentation at the AATS Annual Meeting shows that while five-year survival is up to 39%, these patients still face many health risks and should be monitored for 10 years or more.

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The National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT) was a multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial comparing the efficacy of lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) plus medical management with rehabilitation to medical management plus rehabilitation in patients with severe emphysema. In 2003, the results of NETT demonstrated that LVRS could improve lung function in patients with emphysema, and that the procedure led to improved survival. Yet, adoption of LVRS has been very slow with concerns expressed regarding safety and long-term efficacy. In this presentation, Dr. Ginsburg will present the results of ten years of’ experience with LVRS for emphysema.

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Children who view television as little as an hour a day are significantly more likely to be overweight or obese and gain more unhealthy weight over time, according to a new study from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Based on the findings, the researchers encourage families to restrict young children’s TV viewing to prevent unhealthy weight gain.

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Hospital readmission rates after major thoracic surgery can run as high as 10-17%. Alarmingly, readmission after pulmonary resection for lung cancer has been associated with worse outcomes, including higher mortality. Thus, reducing readmissions after thoracic surgery can both save lives and reduce healthcare costs. Studies in internal medicine and cardiology have shown that programs that improve the transition from hospital to post-discharge care can be effective in decreasing emergency room visits and re-hospitalization. This study from McMaster University describes for the first time the benefits of an active, post-discharge intervention that begins in the hospital for patients who have undergone thoracic surgery.

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For patients in the early stage of non-small cell lung cancer, surgical resection yields optimal outcomes. Prior investigations have shown that different resection procedures have very different outcomes, with pneumonectomy associated with three-fold higher mortality than other resection types. While it is understandable that pathological and physiological factors influence a surgeon’s choice of surgery for a particular patient, the results presented in this study suggest that physician discomfort with the operative complexities of a procedure may lead to selection of a technique associated with less favorable outcomes.

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New evidence suggests that lung cancer surgery patients are at higher risk of developing venous thromboembolism, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), than previously thought, with elevated risks of complications or death. When thromboemboli occur, they may be asymptomatic or attributed to post-surgical pain or complications, and may reflect both the lung cancer itself as well as compromised lung function after surgery. These incidents may also be ascribed to an inconsistent approach to prevention that currently exists among thoracic surgeons and hematologists who care for these patients. Three presentations at the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery explore the problem of venous thromboembolism (VTE) after surgery for lung cancer.

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When educating medical students or residents to perform highly technical procedures, there is always a challenge to balance the educational mission with maintaining quality results and optimal patient care. This report compared outcomes of cardiac surgery residents to those of attending physicians in performing coronary artery bypass grafting. It found no differences in patient outcomes or graft patency between the residents and attending surgeons.

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Investigators will present data from more than 50 studies on topics including adolescent sexual risk, co-locating behavioral health and primary care services, childhood obesity, asthma and autism.

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Over the last 15 years, survival of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) has greatly improved, so that currently there are more adults than children living with CHD. Consequently, people with CHD of all ages are undergoing pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) with bioprosthetic valves. In this retrospective review of all patients with CHD who underwent bioprosthetic PVR over an 18-year period at Boston Children’s Hospital, investigators found that young age and small body weight predisposed patients toward re-intervention, as did the type of valve used.

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Diagnosing sleep apnea — a disease which affects roughly 1 in 13 Americans — typically requires an overnight hospital stay and costs thousands of dollars. A new smartphone app developed at the University of Washington can wirelessly test for sleep apnea events in a person's own bedroom without needing special sensors attached to the body.

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Nearly half of high school students in the U.S. have had sexual intercourse and one third did not use a condom during their last sexual encounter, this study examined whether an intensive theory-driven intervention would prevent sexual risk behavior in young adolescents.

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Meeting at a glance

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New research led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in collaboration with the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center finds that breast-conserving therapy – or the removal of less breast tissue via a lumpectomy – was successful in more than 90 percent of the women who became eligible for this procedure after treatment with chemotherapy. Despite these findings, more than 30 percent who were eligible for breast conserving therapy chose to have the entire breast removed via mastectomy.

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Responding to tremendous clinical growth at their center and the desire for nursing professionals to be well versed in oncology practice, nurses at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey developed a specialized Advanced Practice Nursing Fellowship Program to address these needs. The work is being presented as part of a poster presentation at the Oncology Nursing Society’s Annual Congress this week.

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Brain researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new brain mapping model which could improve the success rate of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in treating conditions including depression, neuropathic pain, and stroke. The model helps pinpoint target sites during TMS, a procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to alleviate or eliminate symptoms of stroke, depression, and attention disorders. The new model will be presented at the 67th American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, April 22.

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Analagous to the NCI-60, a new panel of authenticated K9 cancer cell lines presented at AACR 2015 lets veterinary researchers experiment with known cells.

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Research from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey shows genomic profiling identifies genomic mutations in a gene associated with a rare subset of breast cancer – mutations that cannot otherwise be identified with standard clinical analysis of cells and tissue. The findings, being presented at the AACR Annual Meeting could have therapeutic implications specific to this rare form of the disease, say the authors.

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Researchers at the Cancer Research Laboratory, Methodist Research Institute, Indiana University Health found that a botanical formula for breast health inhibited the growth of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) human breast cancer cells. More importantly, the researchers also found that the formula enhanced the anti-cancer benefits of the drug tamoxifen in the treatment of breast cancer. These results were presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2015.

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Scientists at Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel, have found that oral modified citrus pectin (MCP) enhances the anti-cancer and anti-metastatic effects of radiation therapy in the treatment of androgen-independent (AI) aggressive prostate cancer cells. Results were presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2015.

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More than 18,500 people from 99 countries came to San Francisco for the American Academy of Dermatology’s (Academy) 73rd Annual Meeting, which ran from March 20-24 at the Moscone Center.

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A team of Mayo Clinic researchers has succeeded in identifying the source of cancer in patients’ gastrointestinal tracts by analyzing DNA markers from tumors. The results open the possibility that doctors could one day be able to screen for cancer anywhere in the body with a noninvasive blood test or stool sample. Such tests, if they prove practical and feasible, could mean greater convenience for patients and saved lives through earlier diagnosis of cancer, especially rare and often lethal diseases such as pancreatic cancer or lung cancer.

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Researchers from the Yale Cancer Center and the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System have devised a way to re-engineer lupus antibodies to turn them into potential cancer killers. Findings from recent research were presented April 21 at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2015 Philadelphia.

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The botanical extract honokiol, a biologically active molecule isolated from the bark of Magnolia spp., holds promise as an adjunct treatment for aggressive bladder and kidney cancers, as reported in two new studies. New research on honokiol in bladder cancer was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2015. Research on honokiol’s effect on renal cancer metastasis was published in the April 2015 issue of the International Journal of Oncology.

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New findings about regulation of PD-L1, a protein that allows cancer to evade the immune system, has shown therapeutic promise for several cancers, including the most common form of lung cancer.

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Successful ovarian cancer treatment often relies on catching it early. A study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center may help point to a new method for women at risk.

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Heart transplant surgeons from Mayo Clinic are presenting findings from three recent clinical studies involving heart transplant patients. The presentations took place during the 2015 International Society of Heart & Lung Transplant (ISHLT) in Nice, France, on April 15–18.

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A new guideline authored by Allan Krumholz, MD, a professor of neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, found that administering an antiepileptic medication immediately after a first seizure reduces the risk of having another seizure within two years.

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Following a first seizure, physicians should discuss with patients whether it is appropriate to prescribe medication to reduce risk of another seizure, according to new guidelines released at the American Academy of Neurology meeting.

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Extending the dose of an infusion medication for multiple sclerosis (MS), Natalizumab, from 4 weeks up to 8 has been shown to be well-tolerated and effective -- and resulted in no cases of the potentially fatal side effect, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), according to a new study led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.

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"It's very simple: tumors from mice that were initially fed silibinin had fewer cancer stem cells, were smaller, had lower metabolisms and showed decreased growth of new blood vessels," says University of Colorado Cancer Center researcher.