Category Archives: Author Interviews

Medical Research Author Interviews

Ischemic Stroke As Cancer Predecessor and Associated Predictors

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Jacobo Rogado

Dr. Rogado

Dr Jacobo Rogado
Medical oncology fellow
Hospital de La Princesa
Madrid, Spain

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Some publications have suggested that there is an association between stroke and the subsequent diagnosis of cancer, although others have not confirmed this.

We have addressed this issue with a study conducted at our hospital during two years. We studied a population of about 1000 patients with stroke. We evaluated the incidence of cancer in this population during the follow-up of 18 months, as well as whether there were factors associated with its occurrence.

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Patients Frequently Decline Insulin For About Two Years After Recommendation

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Alexander Turchin, MD, MS Director of Quality in Diabetes in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension Brigham and Women's Hospital

Dr. Turchin

Alexander Turchin, MD, MS
Director of Quality in
Diabetes in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension
Brigham and Women’s Hospital 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Anecdotally, many clinicians report that their patients with diabetes frequently decline recommendations to start treatment with insulin. However, until now, there was no systematic information available on this phenomenon.

Our study has found that 30% of patients initially decline their healthcare providers’ recommendation to start insulin therapy. Patients who do ultimately start treatment with insulin, do it on average more than two years after initially declining it.

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Hypothermia for 48 or 24 Hours After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest?

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Hans Kirkegaard, MD, PhD, DMSci, DEAA, DLS Research Center for Emergency Medicine and Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University Aarhus, Denmark 

Dr. Kirkegaard

Hans Kirkegaard, MD, PhD, DMSci, DEAA, DLS
Research Center for Emergency Medicine and
Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine
Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University
Aarhus, Denmark 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: In 2002, two landmark studies demonstrated that mild therapeutic hypothermia (now known as targeted temperature management, TTM) for 12 or 24 hours improves neurological outcome in adult comatose patients suffering from out of hospital cardiac arrest. Accordingly, international guidelines now recommend TTM for at least 24 hours in this patient group.

However, there are no studies, only case reports that explore the effect of prolonged cooling. We therefore wanted to set up a trial that could fill out this knowledge gap, we hypothesized that doubling the hypothermia dose to 48 hour would improve neurological outcome without increasing the risk of adverse events considerably.

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Low-Fat Dairy Products Linked To Decreased Abdominal Fat, Increased Lean Body Mass

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr Nita Forouhi, MRCP, PhD, FFPHM Programme Leader MRC Epidemiology Unit University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine Institute of Metabolic Science Cambridge Biomedical Campus

Dr Nita Forouhi

Dr Nita Forouhi, MRCP, PhD, FFPHM
Programme Lead & Consultant Public Health Physician
MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine
Institute of Metabolic Science
Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Past research has shown a beneficial link between some dairy products and risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but the mechanisms are not well understood. Body composition (total fat and lean mass) has been suggested as one pathway for the link, but the distribution of body fat and lean mass in relation to dairy consumption is not well studied. Based on this research gap, we aimed to investigate associations between types of dairy consumption and markers of body fat and lean mass distribution including: peripheral fat, the ratio of visceral (fat that surrounds the body organs) to abdominal subcutaneous fat (fat that accumulates under the skin) and appendicular lean mass (i.e., in the limbs).

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Incidence of Sepsis Stable, But Mortality Remains High

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Chanu Rhee MD, Assistant Professor Therapeutics Research and Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School / Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute Critical Care and Infectious Disease Physician Transplant/Oncology Infectious Disease service and Medical Intensive Care Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Dr. Rhee

Dr. Chanu Rhee MD, Assistant Professor
Therapeutics Research and Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group
Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School / Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
Critical Care and Infectious Disease Physician
Transplant/Oncology Infectious Disease service and
Medical Intensive Care Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital 


MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Multiple studies suggest that the incidence of sepsis, the syndrome of life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by infection, is increasing over time, while mortality rates are decreasing.  However, reliably measuring sepsis incidence and trends is challenging because clinical diagnoses of sepsis are subjective and insurance claims data, the traditional method of surveillance, can be affected by changing diagnosis and coding practices over time.

In this study, my colleagues and I estimated the current U.S. burden of sepsis and trends using clinical data from the electronic health record systems of a large number of diverse hospitals. The findings, published in JAMA, challenge the use of claims data for sepsis surveillance and suggest that clinical surveillance using electronic health record data provides more objective estimates of sepsis incidence and outcomes.

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Dual Antithrombotic Therapy with Dabigatran after PCI in Atrial Fibrillation 

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Professor Christopher P. Cannon MD Executive Director, Cardiometabolic Trials, Baim Institute Cardiologist Brigham and Women's Hospital Baim Institute for Clinical Research Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Dr. Cannon

Professor Christopher P. Cannon MD
Executive Director, Cardiometabolic Trials, Baim Institute
Cardiologist Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Baim Institute for Clinical Research
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: The trial explored whether a dual therapy approach of anticoagulation and P2Y12 antagonist – without aspirin – in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) patients following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and stent placement would be as safe, and still efficacious, as the current standard treatment – triple therapy. For more detailed background on the study, readers may want to review the first paragraph of the article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Results showed significantly lower rates of major or clinically relevant non-major bleeding events for dual therapy with dabigatran, when compared to triple therapy with warfarin.

In the study, the risk for the primary safety endpoint (time to major or clinically relevant non-major bleeding event) was 48 percent lower for dabigatran 110 mg dual therapy and 28 percent lower for dabigatran 150 mg dual therapy (relative difference), with similar rates of overall thromboembolic events.

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New Test for TB Can Detect Antibiotic Resistant Strains

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Susan E. Dorman, M.D Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore

Dr. Dorman

Susan E. Dorman, M.D
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Tuberculosis, also called “TB” is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.  TB is caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  In 2015, over 10 million people became sick from TB and 1.8 million people died from TB.  This is a lot of people – diagnosing and treating TB to improve their health is important.  Because TB usually involves the lungs, it can be passed from person to person through the air, and thus, diagnosing and treating TB is critical to  reduce the spread of TB.   Drug-resistant TB — TB caused by bacteria that are resistant to commonly used TB antibiotics — is a serious problem.  In 2015 an estimated 480,000 people had multidrug-resistant TB.

We have been working to develop better, faster ways to diagnose TB and drug-resistant TB.  A new test was developed as a partnership between Rutgers University and Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA), and development was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).  The new test was designed to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria in sputum, and to simultaneously detect whether the bacteria are resistant to several of the main antibiotics (isoniazid, fluoroquinolones, and aminoglycosides) used to treat TB.  The test takes about two hours from sample to result.

The NEJM article describes the results of a study that was undertaken in China and South Korea to understand how well the new test works, compared against gold standard tests.

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Pembrolizumab Reduces Death Rate in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Ezra Cohen, MD Associate Director, Moores Cancer Center Professor of Medicine Moores Cancer Center UC San Diego Health - La Jolla Moores Cancer Center La Jolla, CA  92093

Dr. Cohen

Ezra Cohen, MD
Associate Director, Moores Cancer Center
Professor of Medicine
Moores Cancer Center
UC San Diego Health – La Jolla
Moores Cancer Center
La Jolla, CA  92093

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: We have known for a couple of years that anti-PD1 therapy, and specifically pembrolizumab, is active in  head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The KN40 trial now tested pembrolizuamb against standard of care in patients whose cancers progressed on platinum containing regimens.

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?

Response: The main findings really supported what we know about pembrolizumab in this disease – it is active and effective with a favorable side effect profile. Pembrolizumab reduced the risk of death by 19% and was associated with a 14% response rate. The effect was even greater in tumors that expressed PDL1 and, in the highest expressing group, the benefit in reduction of risk of death was 46% with a 27% response rate.

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Targeted Immunotherapy Can Prevent Some Melanomas From Spreading

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr Alexander Menzies BSc(Med) MBBS (Hons) FRACP PhD Medical Oncologist and Senior Research Fellow at Melanoma Institute Australia The University of Sydney and Royal North Shore and Mater Hospital 

Dr. Menzies

Dr Alexander Menzies BSc(Med) MBBS (Hons) FRACP PhD
Medical Oncologist and Senior Research Fellow at Melanoma Institute Australia
The University of Sydney and Royal North Shore and Mater Hospital 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: For early-stage melanoma, surgical resection is the standard treatment and is associated with an excellent long-term prognosis. However until now, Stage III melanoma patients (where the disease has spread to the lymph nodes) who have had their tumours surgically removed have simply had to play the waiting game to see if their melanoma would metastasise, with many ultimately dying of the disease.

Checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies and drugs that target the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway have improved the outcome of patients with metastatic melanoma, but their role as adjuvant therapy is still being actively investigated.

Prior Phase III trials (COMBI-D and COMBI-V) have shown improved overall survival in patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma with BRAF V600E or V600K mutations. At Melanoma Institute Australia, we were keen to see if this improvement would be seen in the adjuvant setting also. This clinical trial was the first in the world to give targeted therapy to melanoma patients at an earlier stage of the disease to prevent spread and recurrence.

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Which Is Better? Patent Foramen Ovale Closure or Anticoagulation vs. Antiplatelets after Stroke

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Prof. Jean-Louis MAS Université Paris Descartes INSERM UMR S 894 Service de Neurologie et Unité Neurovasculaire Hôpital Sainte-Anne Paris 

Prof. Jean Louis MAS

Prof. Jean-Louis MAS
Université Paris Descartes
INSERM UMR S 894
Service de Neurologie et Unité Neurovasculaire
Hôpital Sainte-Anne
Paris 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Stroke is a major cause of death, disability and dementia affecting 17 million people each year worldwide. About 80% of strokes are ischemic strokes due to occlusion of a cerebral artery by a thrombus, itself the consequence of various arterial or heart diseases. In 30 to 40% of cases, no definite cause of ischemic stroke can be identified. Cryptogenic stroke is the term used to refer to these strokes of unknown etiology.

The patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a defect between the upper two heart chambers (called atria) though which a thrombus of venous origin may reach the systemic circulation and cause a stroke. This mechanism is called paradoxical embolism. Several case-control studies have shown an association between PFO and cryptogenic ischemic stroke, particularly in patients less than 60 years old, in those who have an atrial septal aneurysm (defined as an abnormal protrusion of the interatrial septum in the right or the left atrium or both) in addition to a PFO, and in those who have a PFO with a large right-to-left shunt. These findings suggested that a PFO might be responsible for stroke and that PFO closure with a device may decrease the risk of stroke recurrence. However, the causative relationship between PFO and stroke and the best strategy to prevent stroke recurrence have long been a hot topic of debate. Three previous randomized clinical trials failed to demonstrate any superiority of PFO closure over antithrombotic therapy.

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