.A drug used to treat cardiac failure has shown promising results in treating triple negative breast cancer, according to Houston Methodist researchers who released results this week on a new combined therapy with the potential to improve outcomes for these hard-to-treat breast cancer patients.
In a new study in the December 2021 issue of JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network researchers examined published randomized control trials supporting FDA approval for treatments for solid tumors from January 2015 through December 2019—and found that for 33 out of 81 studies, it was not clear in the publication why or how patients were being censored (i.e. removed from follow-up before experiencing the outcome of interest).
While the rapid development of effective vaccines has helped combat the COVID-19 pandemic, key communities – especially people who are living with HIV – remain disproportionately impacted, and are at higher risk of severe disease and death. Finding an effective HIV vaccine is critically important, and to that end, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) is launching an expanded Faith Initiative that will help advance the work of finding a cure.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute a contract that enables it to compete for projects advancing investigational vaccines to production for use in early clinical trials.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown, in a small clinical trial, that an immunotherapy harnessing pre-activated natural killer cells can help some children and young adults with recurrent AML and few other treatment options.
The final results from a national phase 2 study including researchers from Yale Cancer Center show the drug tipifarnib increased survival rates for patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL). The findings are being presented today at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia.
A highly anticipated clinical trial in eight sub-Saharan countries is the first to specifically evaluate the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine in people living with HIV, including those with poorly controlled infections. It also is the first study to evaluate the efficacy of vaccines – in this case, Moderna mRNA-1273 – against the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Mount Sinai physician-scientists have found that a novel therapy for the bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis is safe and well-tolerated and is associated with modest improvements in patients in a Phase 1b clinical trial. They shared their findings during an oral presentation at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting in December.
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy or CAR T is a breakthrough treatment for patients with certain types of blood cancers. The cellular therapy uses a patient’s own immune cells that are reengineered to better seek out and destroy cancer cells. The single infusion treatment is approved for patients who have relapsed after two or more types of therapy but results from the ZUMA-7 clinical trial show lymphoma patients can benefit from receiving the CAR T product axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) sooner.
Research underway at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey will contribute to the development of new cancer treatments that are based on the administration of cancer-fighting immune cells to patients.
Deciding which medication to prescribe for a new epilepsy diagnosis is an issue without much guidance. The second Standard And New Anti-epileptic Drugs study (SANAD II) compared medications for both focal and generalized epilepsies.
Physicians and researchers presented the latest scientific developments into pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease at its biennial PFF Summit in November. Registration is still open at PFFSummit.org to view all sessions on-demand through Feb. 20, 2022.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital phase II clinical trial results suggest that the monoclonal antibody hu14.18K322A could help change treatment of children with high-risk neuroblastoma.
UC San Diego School of Medicine partners with The Michael J. Fox Foundation on a clinical study to identify biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease. The study seeks to recruit 4,000 participants by the end of 2023.
It can be difficult to predict how patients will respond to bladder cancer treatments, so ISU scientists are perfecting a new technique that grows organoids from patients’ urine samples on which various treatments can be tested. The innovative approach could allow doctors to better tailor therapies to patients.
Using high-frequency waves, the new treatment pushes smaller stones from the bottom of the kidney toward the ureter. The procedure allows for an office visit instead of surgery.
Fox Chase Cancer Center has opened an investigator-initiated, phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of gamitrinib in patients with advanced cancer.
USC study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine shows that experimental drug protects against injury caused by tiny blood clots in the brain’s white matter, which can accumulate over time and lead to cognitive decline
Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine are seeking volunteers from across the U.S. to participate in a clinical trial examining whether online mindfulness-based stress reduction can reduce stress and average blood sugar levels in those with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center are working to develop a dendritic cell vaccine targeting HER3, a protein involved in the growth and spread of many different cancer types. Their pre-clinical work has been published in the journal Cancer Immunology Research.
FDA approved an imaging drug known as Cytalux (pafolacianine), which is attracted to ovarian cancer tissue and illuminates it when exposed to fluorescent light, allowing surgeons to more easily find and more precisely remove the cancer.
MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute physicians at MedStar Washington Hospital Center have completed their 300th implant of the HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), which treats patients with advanced heart failure. MedStar Washington is among the first four LVAD programs nationwide to reach this historic milestone.
Novel randomized controlled trial found that families with high consumption of avocados experienced reduced caloric intake and an overall healthier diet, without actually changing their diet.
Rutgers, a clinical trial site for the global Pfizer-BioNTech research study to evaluate the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine in children, is looking for participants for a third clinical trial on children ages 6 months to 4 years.
The Institute for Molecular Medicine will advance the manufacturing of Duvax for the first clinical trials of a dual vaccine for Alzheimer's disease to begin in 2023
The Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center has been awarded grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to increase minority participation in clinical trials, expand lung cancer screening, develop brain tumor drugs, and advance innovations in drug discovery and technology.
A new study from the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center finds circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA, levels can predict as early as two weeks after starting treatment which patients are likely to have good outcomes. At the same time, specialized MRI and PET scans two weeks after starting chemoradiation also correlated with outcomes.
Physicians at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston have received a seven-year, $22 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help lead a multicenter clinical trial evaluating whether a novel immunosuppressant can reduce the risk of organ rejection after a lung transplant.
With multiple clinical trials under way, it’s likely both a drug using Ac-225 and increased demand for the radioisotope are in the near future — and the U.S. Department of Energy wants to be ready. Since 2015, DOE’s Isotope Program has sponsored the Tri-Lab Effort to Provide Accelerator-produced Ac-225 for Radiotherapy. Thorium-232 targets are irradiated in proton accelerators at Los Alamos and Brookhaven national laboratories, then sent to ORNL for processing in hot cells dedicated to alpha radiation. The purpose: producing bigger batches, faster. In June, ORNL processed the largest batch of Ac-225 ever put in inventory.
Alexander disease is a progressive and rare neurological disorder with no cure or standard course of treatment. But a new study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison involving a rat model of the disease offers a potential treatment for the typically fatal condition.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors can boost the immune system’s response to tumor cells, but the medications tend to be ineffective against certain cancers, especially colorectal and pancreatic cancers.
A randomized controlled trial of 2,275 women in Kenya showed that a single dose of the HPV vaccine was highly effective. The current standard for women is three doses. This news could greatly hasten the pace of vaccinations and brings renewed energy to make cervical cancer the first cancer to be wiped out.
A novel gene therapy for hemophilia A led to sustained expression of the clotting factor those patients lack, resulting in a reduction – or in some cases complete elimination – of painful and potentially life-threatening bleeding events, according to a new study led by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The results of the phase 1/2 trial, which were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, are the first to demonstrate stable coagulation factor VIII in hemophilia A patients following gene therapy.
More people with advanced melanoma survive for two years or more when they receive a combination of two immunotherapy drugs given before a combination of two targeted therapies, if needed, compared to people who start treatment with targeted therapies.
An implant that delivers medication to the back of the eye was found to effectively treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) for at least six months.
In an effort to further position the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine as a global leader in the field of urology, the Desai Sethi Family Foundation has made an extraordinary commitment of $20 million to the Miller School’s renowned Department of Urology. The Foundation’s generosity will help establish a premier Urology Institute within the Miller School that will accelerate breakthrough advances in research, expand clinical care, and train future generations of urologists.
A world first drug developed by University of South Australia scientists may provide the critical breakthrough for 500,000 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Mayo Clinic and several health organizations launched the Advancing Clinical Trials at the Point of Care Coalition to improve patient care by giving clinicians quality clinical research evidence in real time to better evaluate treatments and therapeutics, including those to treat COVID-19. The ACT@POC coalition will bring together health systems, community-based care organizations, health research organizations and a more diverse group of patients and providers to support the design of adaptable clinical trials and develop digital health tools that make clinical trials simpler to conduct and more accessible to patients.
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s Research with a Heart is recruiting participants for the MERCK– IMPOWER studies to assess an HIV prevention oral medication on sexual minority groups.
Cancer patients who are ineligible for clinical trials receive immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) at greater rates than patients who are trial eligible despite no survival benefit, according to a new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The study, published in JAMA Oncology, suggests that the positive results for phase 3 clinical trial participants receiving ICI treatment may not translate to patients who are ineligible for trials due to factors such as organ dysfunction.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified the primary target of the experimental cancer drug CX-5164, revealing a possible risk for late effects of treatment.
SWISS-APERO is the first randomized clinical trial comparing Amulet with the new generation Watchman FLX device in terms of residual left atrial appendage (LAA) patency after percutaneous LAA closure (LAAC) as evaluated by 45-day cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA). The study showed that the two devices achieve a similar rate of LAA occlusion at 45 days but through different mechanism. Furthermore, Amulet as compared with Watchman FLX was associated with higher procedural complications but similar clinical outcomes at 45-days.
Researchers leading the Tau Nex Gen Trial — a worldwide clinical trial aimed at finding treatments for Alzheimer’s disease — are modifying an arm of the trial to target two brain proteins: amyloid and tau. A part of DIAN-TU, the trial originally was announced with a focus on drugs that target tau.
An economic analysis of data from PARTNER 3, a randomized trial comparing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in patients with severe aortic stenosis and low surgical risk, found that despite higher procedural costs, at 2-year follow-up, quality-adjusted life expectancy was greater and total costs were lower with TAVR; as a result, at 2-years, TAVR was cost-effective for these patients.
The FAVOR III China trial found that lesion selection for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using the non-invasively assessed physiologic measurement quantitative flow ratio (QFR) improved outcomes for PCI compared with a standard angiography-guided strategy.