12 Jun Weekend Discharge Not Associated With Higher Rate of Readmission
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jordan M. Cloyd, MD
Department of Surgery
Stanford University
Stanford, California
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Cloyd: The motivation for the study was that, anecdotally, we had noticed that several of our patients who had been discharged on a weekend required readmission for potentially preventable reasons. We wanted to investigate whether the data supported the idea that weekend discharge was associated with a higher risk of hospital readmission.
15 May Gene Expression Signatures May Help Differentiate Sepsis From Non-Infectious Inflammation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Timothy E Sweeney, MD PhD Resident, General Surgery Postdoc, Khatri Lab, Bioinformatics Stanford University Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Sweeney: Sepsis is defined as the presence of systemic inflammation due to infection. Systemic inflammation can be caused from many things, such as trauma, surgery, thrombosis, autoimmunity, etc. It can also be caused by infection. On the other hand, infection does not necessarily cause systemic inflammation, either: a person can get a minor infection, like strep throat, and not have a systemic response. It's the intersection of severe inflammation (a syndrome called SIRS) with infection that defines sepsis. In general surgery, we frequently see patients after traumatic injury or surgery who are having an inflammatory response (ie, fevers, fast heart rate, high white blood cell count, etc). But it's not clear whether this inflammatory response is a reaction to the trauma or surgery, or whether there might be an infection brewing that is causing the reaction. Identifying the inflammatory response doesn't require many special tests-- it's easy to spot. So we know which patients have inflammation and which do not. What is difficult is determining the root cause of the inflammation, and, in particular, whether there is an infection present that needs treatment with antibiotics. Current diagnostics for infection (not sepsis) are either slow (like blood cultures, which can take 24-72 hours to return) or not highly accurate (like procalcitonin). We sought to define a better test that could specifically differentiate between people with sterile inflammation, and people with inflammation due to infection (sepsis). By integrating gene expression data from multiple publicly available cohorts, we were able to find a set of 82 genes that are significantly differently expressed between these two groups. We then used an algorithm called a greedy forward search to find a subset of 11 genes that were most diagnostic for sepsis.13 May Genomic Instability Biomarker May Help Predict Treatment Response In Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Posted at 23:54h
in Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Chemotherapy, Journal Clinical Oncology, Stanford
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Melinda L. Telli, M.D.Assistant Professor of Medicine
Stanford University
Division of Medical Oncology
Stanford, CA 94305-5826 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: A major goal of this study was to explore a DNA damaging chemotherapy regimen in patients with newly diagnosed early-stage triple-negative or BRCA1/2 mutation-associated breast cancer. This was based on the hypothesis that these types of tumors are more responsive to DNA damaging therapeutics. A second major goal was to identify predictors of response to this platinum-based therapy among patients with sporadic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Overall, this study demonstrated that the non-anthracycline and non-taxane neoadjuvant regimen of gemcitabine, carboplatin and iniparib resulted in a 36% pathologic complete response rate (pCR). This compares favorably to pCR rates commonly observed with anthracycline and taxane-based regimens in this group of patients. The response rate was higher among triple-negative breast cancer patients with a germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation (56%). Given the hypothesis of underlying DNA repair defects in sporadic triple-negative breast cancer, we also evaluated a novel measure of genomic instability to detect the accumulation of changes in the genomic landscape of a tumor attributable to defective homologous recombination DNA repair. Homologous recombination deficiency was assessed by loss of heterozygosity (HRD-LOH) in pretreatment core breast biopsies. Very importantly, we found that the HRD-LOH assay was able to identify patients with sporadic TNBC lacking a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, but with an elevated HRD-LOH score, who achieved a favorable pathologic response.
18 Apr 5% of Patients Account For 47% VA Health Care Costs
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Donna Zulman MD MS
Center for Innovation to Implementation, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Menlo Park
Division of General Medical Disciplines, Stanford University, Stanford California, USA
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Zulman: Within the United States, a small number of individuals account for disproporationate health care spending. Many of these high-cost patients have complex chronic conditions such as heart failure and diabetes. Others have complicated mental health conditions. But the vast majority have multiple chronic conditions, which can create challenges when patients are navigating their health care. For this study, we examined patterns of chronic conditions among high-cost patients in the Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System, and studied the relationship between different chronic conditions patterns and health care utilization and costs.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Dr. Zulman: We found that within the VA, the 5% highest cost patients accounted for 47% of total VA health care costs. Approximately two-thirds of these patients had chronic conditions affecting 3 or more body systems (for example, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and depression). However, patients with severe, dominating diseases such as cancer and schizophrenia were less likely to have a lot of comorbid conditions.
In addition, we found that even among these high-cost patients, having more conditions was associated with greater use of outpatient and inpatient services. However, as patients' multimorbidity across body systems increased, a greater share of their costs was generated in the outpatient setting and a smaller share of their costs was generated in the inpatient setting. This suggests that interventions focusing on high-cost patients should not only target costly hospitalizations, but should also coordinate and maximize efficiency of outpatient services across multiple conditions.
26 Mar Imiquimod Cream May Be Effective In Primary And Adjuvant Treatment Of Lentigo Maligna
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Susan Swetter, MD
Professor of Dermatology and Director, Pigmented Lesion and Melanoma Program
Stanford University Medical Center and Cancer Institute.
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Swetter: This retrospective cohort study sought to explore the role of the topical immunomodular - imiquimod 5% cream - as both primary and adjuvant therapy (following optimal surgery) for patients with the lentigo maligna subtype of melanoma in situ. Assessment of alternative treatments to surgery for this melanoma in situ subtype are warranted given the increasing incidence of lentigo maligna in older, fair-complexioned individuals in the United States. Surgical management of lentigo maligna is complicated by its location on cosmetically sensitive areas such as the face, histologic differentiation between lentigo maligna and actinic melanocytic hyperplasia in chronically sun-damaged skin, and potential surgical complications in the elderly who may have medical co-morbid conditions.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Dr. Swetter: We conducted a retrospective review of 63 cases of lentigo maligna in 61 patients (mean age 71.1 years) who used topical 5% imiquimod cream instead of surgery (22 of 63 cases, 34.9%) or as an adjuvant therapy following attempted complete excision (63 cases, 65.1%), in which no clinical residual tumor was present but the histologic margins were transected or deemed narrowly excised. Our study showed overall clinical clearance of 86.2% in the 58 patients analyzed for local recurrence at a mean of 42.1 months of follow-up (standard deviation 27.4 months), with primarily treated cases demonstrating 72.7% clearance at a mean of 39.7 months (standard deviation 23.9 months), and adjuvant cases showing 94.4% clearance at a mean of 39.7 months (standard deviation 23.9 months). We found a statistically significant association between imiquimod-induced inflammation and clinical or histologic clearance in primary but not adjuvant cases, although this latter finding may be explained by a lack of residual atypical melanocytes or true LM in the adjuvant setting, in which wide local excision had already been performed.
09 Mar Male Occupation and Health Can Affect Fertility
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Michael L. Eisenberg, M.D.
Director, Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery
Assistant Professor
Department of Urology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Eisenberg: There has been growing data that a man's overall health may impact his fertility. As such, we wanted to explore this link using the NICHD LIFE Study which has the unique ability to account for both health and work exposure in men with both normal and abnormal fertility. We found that certain aspects of a man's work and health can impact his semen parameters.
30 Jan Integrated Health Care Reduced Racial Disparities in Colon Cancer Treatment
Posted at 20:12h
in Author Interviews, Colon Cancer, Journal Clinical Oncology, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Stanford, Surgical Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kim F. Rhoads, MD, MS, MPH, FACS
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Director, Community Partnership Program
Stanford Cancer Institute Unit Based Medical Director, E3 Surgery and Surgical Subspecialties Stanford University Stanford, Ca 94305
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Rhoads: Colon cancer is the 3rd most common cancer in US men and women and is the 2nd most common cause of cancer death. For at least 2 decades, minorities with colon cancer have suffered a 15-20% additional risk of death when compared with non-minority patients. Our study set out to understand the influence of the location where treatment was delivered and the quality of care received, on overall survival and racial disparities.
We examined more than 30,000 patients who were diagnosed and treated for colon cancer in California from 2001 through 2006. Using cancer registry data linked to state level inpatient data and hospital information, we compared the rates of National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guideline adherence and mortality by location of care and by race. We found that patients treated within an integrated health system (IHS) received NCCN guideline based care at higher rates than those treated outside the system—about 3% higher rates of surgery; and more than 20% higher rates of stage appropriate chemotherapy. The rates of guideline based care were nearly equal between the racial groups treated inside the IHS. Propensity score matched comparisons revealed a lower risk of death for all patients and no racial disparities associated with treatment within the Integrated system. For patients treated outside IHS, the disparity in mortality was explained by accounting for differences in receipt of evidence based care by race.
26 Jan Lab Finds Way To Lengthen Short Telomeres
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. John Ramunas PhD
Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Clinical Sciences Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Ramunas: Telomeres comprise repetitive DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes, but become shorter with each cell division and due to oxidative damage. Critically short telomeres are implicated in diseases of aging and devastating genetic disorders of insufficient telomere maintenance .
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Dr. Ramunas: Our main finding is that telomeres in human cells can be lengthened by a new method with therapeutic potential. We delivered modified mRNA encoding TERT, the protein component of telomerase, the enzyme that increases the length of telomeres by adding DNA repeats. The protein TERT is usually the rate limiting component of the enzyme. In this study, we used four groups of cells. The first group received modified mRNA encoding TERT, and the other three groups were controls that received either mRNA encoding an inactive form of TERT, the solution in which TERT is delivered, or no treatment. The telomeres of the first group (telomere extending treatment group) were extended rapidly over a period of a few days, whereas the telomeres of the three control groups were not extended. The first group was also able to undergo more cell divisions, whereas the controls were not. Importantly for the potential safety of our approach, the telomeres of the first group resumed shortening after they were extended. This is important because it shows that due to the short, transient treatment, the cells were not immortalized, ie. not tumorigenic. Further, all of the cell populations treated to date eventually stopped dividing, further indicating that they were not immortalized. We have tested the approach on cell types including fibroblasts and myoblasts and are now testing it on stem cells. A surprising and exciting finding was that we could treat the cells several times with enhanced effects on the capacity of cells to divide. For instance, after a first treatment, we saw an increase of 50,000-fold in cell numbers before cells stopped dividing, compared to untreated cells. If we waited a few weeks and repeated this treatment, we saw a similar gain in cell division and number. Since the increase in numbers is compounded with each treatment, a small sample of cells, for example from a small biopsy, can be amplified to very large numbers.
10 Nov Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Computerized Imaging Predicts Risk Progression
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Daniel L. Rubin, MD, MS
Assistant Professor of Radiology and Medicine (Biomedical Informatics)
Department of Radiology | Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-5488
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Rubin: Age-Related Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of blindness and central vision loss among adults older than 65. An estimated 10-15 million people in the United States suffer from the disease, in which the macula — the area of the retina responsible for vision — shows signs of degeneration. While about one of every five people with AMD develop the so-called “wet” form of the disease that can cause devastating blindness. In wet AMD, abnormal blood vessels accumulate underneath the macula and leak blood and fluid. When that happens, irreversible damage to the macula can quickly ensue if not treated quickly. Until now, there has been no effective way to tell which individuals with AMD are likely to convert to the wet stage. Current treatments are costly and invasive — they typically involve injections of medicines directly into the eyeball — making the notion of treating people with early or intermediate stages of Age-Related Macular Degeneration a non-starter. In our study, we report on a computerized method that analyzes images of the retina obtained with a test called spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), and our method can predict, with high accuracy, whether a patient with mild or intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration will progress to the wet stage. Our method generates a risk score, a value that predicts a patient’s likelihood of progressing to the wet stage within one year, three years or five years. The likelihood of progression within one year is most relevant, because it can be used to guide a recommendation as to how soon to schedule the patient’s next office visit. In our study, we analyzed data from 2,146 scans of 330 eyes in 244 patients seen at Stanford Health Care over a five-year period. Patients were followed for as long as four years, and predictions of the model were compared with actual instances of conversion to wet AMD. The model accurately predicted every occurrence of conversion to the wet stage of AMD within a year. In approximately 40% of the cases when the model predicted conversion to wet AMD within a year, the prediction was not borne out, however. We are currently refining the model to reduce the frequency of these false positives.
07 Nov Age-Related Macular Degeneration: SD-OCT Imaging Predicts Dry To Wet Progression
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Theodore Leng, MD, MS , one of the article’s senior authors
Byers Eye Institute at Stanford
Stanford University School of Medicine
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Dr. Leng: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Medical Research: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness and central vision loss among adults older than 65 years. 80-85% of patients have the dry, non-exudative, form of the disease, but the wet, exudative, form of advanced AMD is of primary concern as it accounts for a majority of severe vision loss in Age-related macular degeneration. In wet AMD, abnormal blood vessels grow under the retina and can leak blood and fluid.
Until now, there has been no effective way to tell which patients with dry AMD are likely to progress to the wet stage. In our recent Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science article, we describe a new mathematical model that can predict which patients are likely to progress.
The predictive model identifies likely progressors by analyzing 3D spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) retinal imaging data that’s routinely obtained during retinal encounters.
We analyzed data from 2,146 SD-OCT scans of 330 eyes in 244 patients seen at The Byers Eye Institute at Stanford over a five-year period. We found that the area and height of drusen, the amount of reflectivity at the macular surface and the degree of change in these features over time, could be weighted to generate a patient’s risk score. Predictions from the model were compared with cases where patients actually progressed to wet Age-related macular degeneration. Our model accurately predicted every occurrence of progression within a year. There was a false positive rate of around 40%, but we thought this was a good tradeoff because we would not miss any potential progressors by using this sensitivity threshold.
27 Aug Children of Bipolar Parents Have Increased Novelty-Seeking and Impulsivity
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Manpreet K. Singh, MD MS Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Faculty Scholar in Pediatric Translational Medicine Stanford University School of Medicine Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Singh: Our research team used a monetary incentive delay paradigm to measure fronto-limbic activity and connectivity associated with anticipation and receipt of reward and loss in healthy offspring of parents with bipolar I disorder. We found that compared to youth offspring without any family history of psychopathology, high-risk offspring had aberrant prefrontal and cingulate activations and connectivity during reward processing. Further, greater striatal, amygdalar, and insula activations while anticipating and receiving rewards and losses were associated with greater novelty-seeking and impulsivity traits in high-risk youth.21 Aug Atrial Fibrillation Risk Lower In Postmenopausal Women Who Exercise
Posted at 10:41h
in AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Gender Differences, Heart Disease, Stanford
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Marco Perez, MD
Instructor in Cardiovascular Medicine
Director, Inherited Cardiac Arrhythmia Clinic
Stanford University Medical Center
Cardiac Electrophysiology & Arrhythmia Service
Stanford, CA 94305-5233
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Perez: It was already known that obesity is an important risk factor for atrial fibrillation. We studied over 80,000 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative who were followed for the onset of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm associated with stroke and death. We found that those who exercised more than 9 MET-hours/week (equivalent to a brisk walk of 30 minutes six days a week) were 10% less likely to get atrial fibrillation than those who were sedentary. Importantly, the more obese the women were, the more they benefited from the exercise in terms of atrial fibrillation risk reduction.
24 Jun Smaller Kids Gain Weight After Tonsillectomy, But No Increase In Obesity
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kay W. Chang, MD
Associate Professor of Otolaryngology and Pediatrics
Stanford University
Department of Otolaryngology
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford
Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Chang: At 18 months after surgery, weight percentiles in the study group increased by a mean of 6.3 percentile points, and body mass index percentiles increased by a mean of 8.0 percentile points. The greatest increases in weight percentiles were observed in children who were between the 1st and 60th percentiles for weight and younger than 4 years at the time of surgery. An increase in weight percentile was not observed in children who preoperatively were already above the 80th percentile in weight.
17 May Infertility in Men Linked to Mortality
MedicalResearch. com Interview with:
Michael Eisenberg, MD, PhD
Director, Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery
Assistant Professor, Department of Urology
Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Stanford School of Medicine
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Eisenberg: There is an inverse relationship between semen quality and mortality so that as semen quality declines the likliehood of death increases.
20 Feb Pediatric Oncology: Radiation Free Imaging Test as Alternative to PET/CT Scans
Posted at 05:32h
in Author Interviews, CT Scanning, Lancet, Medical Imaging, MRI, Pediatrics, Stanford
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with:
Dr Heike Daldrup-Link
Associate Professor of Radiology
Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We use magnetic resonance imaging, a technology based on magnetic fields rather than radiotracers or x-rays. The underlying technology is not new – it has been used for tumor staging for many years. This is an advantage as MR scanners are available in nearly every major Children’s Hospital where children with cancer are treated. What is new about our approach is that we combined anatomical and functional images, similar to current approaches that use radiotracers and CT (PET/CT): We first acquired scans that showed the anatomy of the patient very well and we then acquired scans that depict tumors as bright spots with little or no background information. We did that by using an iron supplement as a contrast agent: The iron supplement can be detected by the MRI magnet and improved tumor detection and vessel delineation MR scans. We then fused the anatomical scans with the tumor scans.
11 Jan Childhood Type I Diabetes: Brain White Matter Changes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Naama Barnea-Goraly M.D.
Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research
Stanford University
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Our main findings showed that compared with age and sex matched controls, children with type 1 diabetes have significant differences in white matter structure in widespread brain regions. Within the type 1 diabetes group, earlier onset of diabetes and longer duration were associated with greater alterations in white matter structure. In addition, measures of hyperglycemia and glucose variability, but not hypoglycemia were associated with white matter structure; however, hypoglycemia exposure and the number of severe hypoglycemia events in our sample were too small to identify statistically meaningful differences. Finally, we observed a significant association between white matter structure and cognitive ability in children with type 1 diabetes, but not in controls.
06 Dec Medical Residents and Nurse Practitioners: Effects of Communication Skills Training
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
J. Randall Curtis, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine
Director, UW Palliative Care Center of Excellence
Section Head, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Harborview Medical CenterA. Bruce Montgomery, M.D. – American Lung Association Endowed Chair in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98104
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Curtis: We examined the effect of a communication-skills intervention for internal medicine and nurse practitioner trainees on patient- and family-reported outcomes. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Heatlh. We conducted a randomized trial with 391 internal medicine and 81 nurse practitioner trainees at two universities. Participants were randomized to either an 8-session simulation-based, communication-skills intervention or to usual education. We collected outcome data from a large number of patients with life-limiting illness and their families, including 1866 patient ratings and 936 family ratings. The primary outcome was patient-reported quality of communication and, overall, this outcome did not change with the intervention. However, when we restricted our analyses to only patients who reported their own health status as poor, the intervention was associated with increased communication ratings. Much to our surprise, the intervention was associated with a small but significant increase in depression scores among post-intervention patients. Overall, this study demonstrates that among internal medicine and nurse practitioner trainees, simulation-based communication training compared with usual education improved communication skills acquisition, but did not improve quality of communication about end-of-life care for all patients. However, the intervention was associated with improved patient ratings of communication for the sickest patients. Furthermore, the intervention was associated with a small increase in patients’ depressive symptoms, and this appeared most marked among patients of the first-year residents.
28 Nov Menopause: Effects of Sex Hormones on Cognition and Mood
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Victor W. Henderson MD
Professor of Health Research and Policy and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Henderson: Estrogen or hormone therapy effects on some health outcomes differ by age, harmful at one age and beneficial at another.
This difference is sometimes referred to as the “critical window” or “timing” theory. It is controversial whether the so-called critical-window applies to memory or other cognitive skills.
In assessing the critical window hypothesis, we found that the relation between blood levels of estrogen and memory or reasoning skills is the same in younger postmenopausal women as in older postmenopausal women. Essentially, there is no association at either age.
18 Nov Colon Cancer: Racial Disparities in Metastatic Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
James Murphy, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, Center for Advanced Radiotherapy Technologies ,UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
La Jolla, CA 92093
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Murphy: This study evaluated racial disparity in metastatic colorectal cancer. In a large population-based cohort we found of over 11,000 patients we found that black patients were less likely to be seen in consultation by a cancer specialist, and were less likely to receive treatment with chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation. Furthermore, we found that this disparity in treatment accounted for a substantial portion of the race-based differences between black and white patients.
28 Aug Prostate Cancer: Coffee and Tea Association
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Janet L. Stanford, MPH, PhD
Full Member, Research Professor
Co-Head, Program in Prostate Cancer Research
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
1100 Fairview Ave. N. M4-B874
Seattle, WA 98109-1024
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Stanford: The main finding from our research is that one or more cups of coffee per day is associated with a 56% to 59% reduction in the risk of prostate cancer recurrence or progression in men diagnosed with this common disease. In our cohort of prostate cancer patients, 61% reported drinking at least one cup of coffee per day, with 14% reporting drinking 4 or more cups per day. The lower risk for prostate cancer recurrence/progression observed in coffee drinkers, however, was seen even for those who consumed only one cup per day, suggesting that even modest intake of coffee may offer health benefits for prostate cancer patients.
03 Jul Melanoma: Women Have Survival Advantage
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Susan Swetter, MD
Professor of Dermatology
Director, Pigmented Lesion & Melanoma Program
Stanford University Medical Center & Cancer Institute
Melanoma Survival Disadvantage in Young, Non-Hispanic White Males Compared With Females
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Swetter: Women diagnosed with melanoma tend to fare better than men in terms of improved survival, and this has mostly been attributed to better screening practices and behaviors in women that result in thinner, more curable tumors, and/or more frequent physician visits in older individuals that result in earlier detection. Our study focused on survival differences between young men and women (ages 15-39 years) diagnosed with cutaneous (skin) melanoma, who constitute a generally healthy population compared to the older adults that have usually been studied. We found that young men were 55% more likely to die of melanoma than age-matched women, despite adjustment for factors that may affect prognosis, such as tumor thickness, histology and location of the melanoma, as well as presence and extent of metastasis. Our results present further evidence that a biologic mechanism may contribute to the sex disparity in melanoma survival, since adolescent and young adults see physicians less frequently and are less likely to have sex-related behavior differences in skin cancer screening practices than older individuals.30 May Eradicating disseminated tumors, even in brain, by injecting specific antibodies
MedicalResearch.com eInterview with Ronald Levy, M.D. Professor and Chief Division of Oncology Stanford University, 269 Campus Drive Stanford, California 94305, USA MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Levy: Injection of antibodies that deplete Treg cells directly into a tumor can evoke an immune response that cures the animal of distant, untreated tumors. This effect eliminates cancer even in the brain. The dose of antibodies locally injected can be as low as 1/100 the dose used for systemic injection and therefore should avoid the usual autoimmune side effects of these antibodies. The antibodies used are directed against CTLA4 and OX40 antigens.29 May Age, Tumor Risk, and Comorbidity on Competing Risks for Survival in Men With Prostate Cancer
MedicalResearch.com eInterview with Timothy J. Daskivich, MD Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars® University of California Los Angeles Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research 10940 Wilshire Blvd, 7th Floor Suite 710, Room 721 Los Angeles, California 90024 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Were any of the findings unexpected? Dr. Daskivich: We found that age and a simple count of comorbidities were strongly predictive of likelihood of dying of causes other than prostate cancer. When we put numbers to it, it was surprising how often older men with multiple comorbidities were dying of something else than their prostate cancer within 14 years of diagnosis. For example, a 75-year old man with 3 or more comorbidities—diabetes, high blood pressure, and history of heart attack—had a probability of death from something other than CaP of 71% at 10 years. For a 71-year old man with 3 or more comorbidities, the probability was 60%. We compared that to the amount of time they were dying of prostate cancer, which was 3% for low-risk disease and 7% for intermediate-risk disease.27 Apr Cost-Effectiveness of Helicopter Versus Ground Emergency Medical Services for Trauma Scene Transport in the US
MedicalResearch.com eInterview with: M. Kit Degado, MD, MS
Instructor, Emergency Medicine
Affiliated Faculty, Centers for Health Policy/Primary Care and Outcomes Research
Stanford University School of Medicine
kdelgado@stanford.edu
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Degado:
- We found that if an additional 1.6% of patients flown by helicopter survive or if there is any improvement in disability outcomes, then helicopter EMS should be considered cost-effective over transporting patients by ground EMS.
05 Sep Researchers report distinct features of Autistic brain in novel analysis of MRI scans
STANFORD, Calif. - Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital have used a novel method for analyzing brain-scan data to distinguish children with autism from typically developing children. Their discovery reveals that the gray matter in a network of brain regions known to affect...
25 Jul Substance may extend time to prevent brain damage after Stroke
STANFORD, Calif. — A naturally occurring substance shrank the size of stroke-induced lesions in the brains of experimental mice — even when administered as much as 12 hours after the event, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have shown. The substance, alpha-B-crystallin, acts as a brake on the immune system,...