Medical Research Journals
26 Aug 70-Gene Signature Can Help Identify Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients Who Do Not Need Chemotherapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27366" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Laura Van't Leer[/caption]
Prof. Laura van ’t Veer, PhD
Leader, Breast Oncology Program, and Director, Applied Genomics, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Angela and Shu Kai Chan Endowed Chair in Cancer Research
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: MINDACT was designed to involve only patients with node negative and 1 to 3 positive lymph node breast cancer. Node negative breast cancer is a cancer that has not spread to the surrounding lymph nodes and therefore has a lower risk of recurrence. Scientists have also demonstrated that breast cancer which has spread to 1 to 3 lymph nodes may behave like node negative breast cancer. Patients with either node negative cancer or with a cancer that involves 1-3 lymph nodes are often prescribed chemotherapy, although physicians believe that approximately 15% of them do not require such treatment.
MINDACT provides the highest level of evidence to show that using MammaPrint® can substantially reduce the use of chemotherapy in patients with node-negative and 1-to-3 node positive breast cancer – in other words, it can identify patients with these types of breast cancer who can safely be spared a treatment that may cause significant side effects, and will offer no to very little benefit.
25 Aug Capecitabine Cancer Treatment Can Result in Loss of Fingerprints
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27352" align="alignleft" width="96"]
Leni van Doorn[/caption]
Leni van Doorn, MSc
Department of Medical Oncology
Erasmus MC Cancer Institute
Rotterdam, the Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The common cancer treatment capecitabine, a regular treatment for patients mostly diagnosed with breast-, colon- or gastic cancer, induces hand foot syndrome (HFS). HFS is a cutaneous condition that may lead to red palms and blisters in approximately 50% to 60% of the patients and is believed to result in the loss of fingerprints. This fingerprint loss has been described sporadically in the literature.
The main aim of our prospective study was to have a closer look of the association between hand foot syndrome and the loss of fingerprints.
25 Aug Model Developed For Prediction of Sudden Cardiac Death
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27344" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Dr. Alvaro Alonso[/caption]
Alvaro Alonso, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Epidemiology
Rollins School of Public Health
Emory University
Atlanta, GA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major public health problem. Each year, 300,000-400,000 Americans experience SCD and, in more than half of these cases, sudden cardiac death is the first manifestation of heart disease. To date, however, we lack effective strategies to identify those at higher risk of developing sudden cardiac death so targeted preventive strategies can be applied.
In this study, we develop and validate the first model for the prediction of SCD in ~18,000 adults without a prior history of cardiovascular disease. We show that information on demographic variables (age, sex, race), some traditional cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, elevated blood pressure, diabetes, HDL cholesterol) as well as some factors more specifically related to SCD causes (electrocardiogram QT interval) and novel biomarkers (albumin, potassium in blood, kidney function) can be leveraged to predict risk of SCD and identify individuals more likely to suffer this event.
25 Aug Technetium Cardiac Imaging Predicts Prognosis of Cardiac Amyloidosis
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27269" align="alignleft" width="100"]
Dr. Adam Castano[/caption]
Adam Castano, M.D., M.S.
Division of Cardiology
Columbia University Medical Center
New York Presbyterian Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR-CA) is an increasingly recognized cause of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Traditionally, the gold standard for diagnosis has required an endomyocardial biopsy coupled with either immunohistochemistry or mass spectroscopy. These specialized tests are only performed at centers with experienced satff, do not yield prognostically useful information, may be inadvisable for frail older adults, and often present logistical challenges that lead to delayed care.
Fortunately, single center studies have demonstrated excellent diagnostic accuracy using technetium 99m pyrophosphate (Tc99mPYP) cardiac imaging for noninvasively detecting ATTR-CA and differentiating it from another major type of cardiac amyloidosis called light chain (AL). But the diagnostic accuracy of this technique in a multicenter study and the association of Tc99mPYP myocardial uptake with survival were not known prior to this study.
Therefore, we assessed in a multicenter study Tc99mPYP cardiac imaging as a diagnostic tool and its association with survival. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 229 patients evaluated at 3 academic specialty centers for cardiac amyloidosis and also underwent Tc99mPYP cardiac imaging. We measured retention of Tc99mPYP in the heart using a semiquantitative visual score (range 0-3) and a more quantitative heart-to-contralateral (H/CL) ratio calculated as total counts in a region of interest over the heart divided by background counts in an identical size region of interest over the contralateral chest. The outcome measured was time to death after Tc99mPYP imaging.
25 Aug Many Leading Oncologists Have Pharmaceutical Ties
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27281" align="alignleft" width="160"]
Dr. Aaron Mitchell[/caption]
Dr. Aaron Mitchell MD
Hematology/Oncology Fellow
University North Carolina
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: It is well known that many physicians work with the pharmaceutical industry. In some cases, this can create conflicts of interest with physicians' other responsibilities. The Open Payments law, passed as part of the Affordable Care Act, recently made these relationships public, which now allows us to study them more systematically.
25 Aug Study Finds Hair Transplantation Improves Attractiveness in Men With Male Pattern Baldness
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27278" align="alignleft" width="80"]
Dr. Lisa Ishii[/caption]
Lisa Earnest Ishii, M.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive SurgeryJohns Hopkins School of Medicine
Baltimore Maryland 21287
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Hair transplantation for men suffering from male pattern hair loss is a common procedure to improve their appearance. However, to the best of our knowledge the impact of the procedure for men with hair loss had never been clearly demonstrated.
We showed, for the first time, that men who undergo the procedure can have real improvements in attractiveness, age, and the appearance of successfulness as perceived by the casual observer in society.
25 Aug Breast Cancer Cells Can Switch HER2 On and Off, Requiring Combination Treatment
Posted at 01:29h
in Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Chemotherapy, Nature
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_27306" align="alignleft" width="125"]
Dr. Shyamala Maheswaran[/caption]
Shyamala Maheswaran, PhD
Associate Professor of Surgery
Harvard Medical School
Assistant Molecular Biologist
Center for Cancer Research
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: About 85% hormone receptor positive HER2 negative metastatic breast cancer patients show that cancer cells acquire HER2 expression during disease progression. These HER2 positive cells coexist with HER2 negative cancer cells, and these two populations are able to spontaneously oscillate between these two states; in culture and in cancers established in mice. Both HER2 positive and HER2 negative cells form tumors when injected into mice, but HER2 positive cancer cells form tumors more rapidly than HER2 negative tumors. At a molecular level, several growth factor pathways are activated in HER2 positive cancer cells, while activation of the Notch pathway, an embryonic signaling event, is observed in HER2 negative cells. Thus the HER2 positive and HER2 negative cancer cells exhibit differential sensitive to drugs: the HER2 positive cells, which are more proliferative and non-responsive to HER2-targeting agents, are responsive to chemotherapy drugs whereas the HER2 negative tumor cells are sensitive to Notch inhibitors. A combination of chemotherapeutic drugs and notch inhibitors effectively eliminate tumors formed by a mixture of these two population of cancer cells compared to either drug alone. These findings highlight the importance of tumor heterogeneity in cancer progression and drug responses and suggest that targeting all the different populations within cancers is necessary to effectively manage cancer progression.
25 Aug Simple Changes in Cooking Methods May Reduce Inflammatory Stress and Decrease Insulin Resistance
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27302" align="alignleft" width="125"]
Dr. Jaime Uribarri[/caption]
Jaime Uribarri, MD
Professor, Nephrology
Icahn School of Medicine
Mt. Sinai Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We have been doing research in the area of dietary advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) for many years.
AGEs are chemical compounds that form normally in the body in small amounts and also in food when cooking under high heat and dry conditions; a percent of AGEs in food is absorbed and part of it is retained in the body leading to increased smoldering inflammation and oxidative stress that eventually produce most of modern chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, etc. We have previously demonstrated that a diet low in AGEs, which essentially means changing the cooking methods to include less application of heat, plenty of water,etc, decreases inflammation of oxidative stress in people with diabetes, chronic kidney disease and in healthy subjects. In the current study we applied the same low dietary AGE intervention to a group of obese patients with the so-called Metabolic syndrome, a risk factor for Diabetes Mellitus.
24 Aug Patients With Psoriasis Have Coronary Calcium Scores Comparable to Diabetes
Posted at 21:00h
in Author Interviews, Dermatology, Diabetes, Heart Disease, JAMA, Medical Imaging, NIH
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Nehal N. Mehta, .MD., M.S.C.E. F.A.H.A.
Lasker Clinical Research Scholar
Section of Inflammation and Cardiometabolic Diseases
NIH
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Psoriasis is associated with accelerated cardiovascular (CV) disease; however, screening for CV risk factors in psoriasis remains low. Coronary artery calcium (CAC) score estimates the total burden of atherosclerosis. Psoriasis has been associated with increase CAC score, but how this compares to patients with diabetes, who are aggressively screened for CV risk factors, is unknown.
24 Aug Pre-Hospital Start of IV Thrombolysis Might Result in Improved Functional Outcome in Stroke Patients.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Alexander Kunz MD Department of Neurology Charité-University Medicine Berlin Berlin, Germany MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Systemic thrombolysis with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) in acute ischemic stroke has been an approved therapy for over 20 years now. To date, tPA can be administered to eligible patients within a 4.5 hours time window after the onset of symptoms. Results from large thrombolysis trials and meta-analyses have shown, that the beneficial effects of tPA are inversely correlated with the delay from symptoms onset to start of tPA treatment. This relationship is frequently summarized in the slogan “Time is brain!” Currently, several research groups are evaluating the concept of pre-hospital thrombolysis using a mobile stroke treatment unit (MSTU) in order to achieve significant reductions in onset-to-treatment delays. MSTU are specialized ambulances equipped with a CT scanner and a mini-laboratory. In Berlin, Germany, we have been operating an MSTU (stroke emergency mobile vehicle, STEMO) since 2011. Previous studies had shown that start of tPA treatment was 25min earlier when patients were cared by STEMO than within conventional care, i.e. admission to hospital by regular ambulance and in-hospital tPA treatment. However, these studies did not prove, that earlier treatment in STEMO is associated with better outcome. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to compare 3-month functional outcome after tPA in patients with acute ischemic stroke who received STEMO care vs conventional care.23 Aug Step Closer To Treating Mitochondrial Diseases by Understanding How Embryos Digest Sperm
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27272" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Peter Sutovsky[/caption]
Peter Sutovsky PhD
Professor of Animal Science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
University of Missouri
Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at the School of Medicine
University of Missouri Health System
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Strictly maternal inheritance of mitochondria, the cellular power stations, and mitochondrial genes that mitochondria harbor, is a major biological paradigm in mammals. Propagation of paternal, sperm-contributed mitochondrial genes, resulting in a condition called heteroplasmy, is seldom observed in mammals, due to post-fertilization elimination sperm mitochondria, referred to as “sperm mitophagy.” Our and others’ recent results suggest that this process is mediated by the synergy of ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS) pathway that recycles outlived cellular proteins one molecule at a time, and autophagic pathway capable of engulfing and digesting an entire mitochondrion.
Here we demonstrate that the co-inhibition of the ubiquitin-binding autophagy receptor proteins SQSTM1, GABARAP, and UPS, and the UPS protein VCP dependent pathways delayed the digestion of sperm mitochondria inside the fertilized pig egg. By manipulating said proteins, we created heteroplasmic pig embryos with both the paternal and maternal mitochondrial genes. Such animal embryos that could be used as a biomedical model to research and alleviate certain forms of mitochondrial disease.
23 Aug Folic Acid May Reduce Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Fan Fan Hou MD
Chief, Division of Nephrology, Nanfang Hospital
Professor of Medicine, Southern Medical University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Previous trials (HOST and DIVINe) of folic acid therapy in CKD patients were conducted in patients with advanced CKD and treated with super-high dose of vitamin B or with cyanocobalamin that has been shown to be renal toxic. The current study sought to evaluated the efficacy of folic acid therapy without cyanocobalamin on renal outcomes in patients without folic acid fortification and across a spectrum of renal function at baseline from normal to moderate CKD.
We found that treatment with enalapril-folic acid, as compared with enalapril alone, reduced the risk of progression of CKD by 21% and the rate of eGFR decline by 10% in hypertensive patients. More importantly, the presence of CKD at baseline was a significant modifier of the treatment effect (p for interaction = 0.01). Patients with CKD benefited most from the folic acid therapy, with a 56% and 44% reduction in the risk for progression of CKD and the rate of eGFR decline, respectively. In contrast, the renal protective effect in those without CKD was nominal.
22 Aug Patients Remain On High Risk Drugs Even After A Fragility Fracture
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27214" align="alignleft" width="160"]
Dr. Jeffrey Munson[/caption]
Jeffrey Munson, MD, MSCE
Assistant Professor
The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Fragility fractures due to osteoporosis are a common and costly event among older Americans. Patients who experience one fragility fracture are at increased risk to have a second fracture. Our group is interested in exploring ways in which the risk of a second fracture could be reduced.
In this paper, we studied prescription drug use both before and after fracture. We know many prescription drugs have been shown to increase the risk of fracture, but we don’t know whether doctors try to reduce the use of these drugs after a fracture has occurred. Our study was designed to answer this question.
22 Aug Dialysis Patients Use Emergency Rooms At Six Times Rate of General Population
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27209" align="alignleft" width="122"]
Dr. Rachel Patzer[/caption]
Rachel Patzer, PhD, MPH
Director of Health Services Research,
Emory Transplant Center
Assistant Professor
Emory University School of Medicine
Department of Surgery
Division of Transplantation
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) make up less than 1% of all Medicare patients, but account for more than 7% of all Medicare expenses. Patients with ESRD have the highest risk of hospitalization of any patient with a chronic disease, and while hospital admissions have decreased over the last several years, emergency department utilization for this patient population has increased by 3% in the last 3 years. The purpose of the study we conducted was to describe the clinical and demographic characteristics associated with emergency department utilization.
22 Aug Incidence of Pneumonitis from PD-1 Blockers Across Cancers Identified
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mizuki Nishino, MD MPH Department of Radiology Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Boston, Massachusetts MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Immune-checkpoint inhibitors including PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors have brought remarkable advances in treatment of cancer patients. Immune-checkpoint inhibitors are associated with a unique set of adverse events,...
22 Aug Do Dysplastic Nevi Need Re-excision?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27029" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Susan Swetter[/caption]
Susan M. Swetter, MD
Professor of Dermatology
Director, Pigmented Lesion & Melanoma Program
Physician Leader, Cancer Care Program in Cutaneous Oncology
Stanford University Medical Center and Cancer Institute
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Dysplastic nevi (DN) are frequently re-excised following initial biopsy due to concerns for malignant transformation; however, the long-term risk of melanoma developing in mildly or moderately dysplastic nevi with positive histologic margins is unknown. In this cohort study of 590 histologic DN that were followed over 20 years, 6 cases of melanoma (5 in situ) arose in the 304 DN with positive margins that were clinically observed, only 1 of which developed from an excisionally-biopsied dysplastic nevus. One melanoma in situ arose in the 170 cases that underwent complete excision at the outset. The risk of new primary melanoma at other sites of the body was over 9% in both groups.
20 Aug Gallstones Linked With Increased Risk of Heart Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27217" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Lu Qi[/caption]
Lu Qi, MD, PhD
HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and Professor
Director,Tulane University Obesity Research Center
Department of Epidemiology
Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
1440 Canal Street, Suite 1724
New Orleans, LA 70112
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Gallstone disease has been related to various risk factors of cardiovascular disease, and several previous studies suggest potential link between gallstone disease and heart disease. Our study, for the first time, provide consistent evidence for the association between gallstone disease and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
19 Aug Lung Cancers Detected On Screening CT Scans Have Better Survival
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27200" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Matthew Schabath[/caption]
Matthew B. Schabath PhD
Department of Cancer Epidemiology
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
Tampa, Florida
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Our study is a post-hoc analysis of data from a large randomized clinical trial (RCT) called the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). The NLST found that lung cancer screening with low-dose helical computed tomography (LDCT) significantly reduced lung cancer deaths by 20 percent compared to screening with standard chest radiography (i.e., X-Ray).
In our publication, we performed a very detailed analysis comparing outcomes of lung cancer patients screened by LDCT according to their initial (i.e., baseline), 12 month, and 24 month screening results. We found that patients who had a negative baseline screening but tested positive for lung cancer at the 12- or 24-month screen had lower survival and higher mortality rates than patients who had a positive initial screen that was a non-cancerous abnormality but developed lung cancer in subsequent screens.
19 Aug Genes Responsible For Cardiometabolic Diseases Identified
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27194" align="alignleft" width="130"]
Dr. Johan Björkegren[/caption]
Johan LM Björkegren, MD, PhD
Professor, Chief Clinical Science Officer
Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences
Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The STARNET (Stockholm-Tartu Atherosclerosis Reverse Network Engineering Task) study was launched in 2007 by myself and Dr. Arno Ruusalepp MD, PhD, Chief Cardiac Surgeon at Tartu University Hospital in Estonia, and senior co-author on the study. Unlike similar studies, STARNET obtained samples of several key tissues from 600 clinically well-characterized patients with CAD during coronary artery bypass surgery. By using sophisticated data analysis techniques, the researchers found that the gene expression data from STARNET were highly informative in identifying causal disease genes and their activity in networks not only in CAD but also for other cardiometabolic diseases as well as Alzheimer’s disease.
By analyzing gene-expression data from multiple tissues in hundreds of patients with coronary artery disease, we were able to identify disease-causing genes that either were specific to single tissues or acted across multiple tissues in networks to cause cardiometabolic diseases.
19 Aug Right Ventricular Changes in Olympic Athletes Described
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27190" align="alignleft" width="170"]
Dr. Antonio Pelliccia[/caption]
Antonio Pelliccia, MD, FESC
Chief of Cardiology
Institute of Sport Medicine and Science
Rome
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The awareness of the relevant role of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) as cause of athletic field events and the refined Task Force (TF) criteria for the diagnosis of the disease have prompted a large scientific interest and triggered a vast scientific literature on this issue.
Indeed, the recent observations by Heidbuchel and La Gerche based on data from a selected group of ultra-endurance athletes, suggesting that strenuous, chronic endurance exercise may ultimately cause, per se, RV dysfunction have further stimulated the need to define the characteristics and limits of training-induced RV remodelling.
At present, however, no studies have assessed the characteristic of physiologic right ventricular remodelling as derived from a large population of highly-trained athletes, including a sizeable number of women and comprising a broad spectrum of summer and winter Olympic sport disciplines.
19 Aug Maternal Gestational Diabetes Increased Risk of Childhood Obesity
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_26918" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Gang Hu[/caption]
Dr. Gang Hu, Associate Professor
LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center & Director
Chronic Disease Epidemiology Lab
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Some studies have found that maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) places offspring at increased risk of long-term adverse outcomes, including obesity. However, most of studies are from high income countries, with limited data from low to middle income countries. The present study, conducted at urban and suburban sites in 12 countries, found that the increased risk for children of GDM mothers compared with non-gestational diabetes mellitus mothers was 53% for obesity, 73% for central obesity, and 42% for high body fat.
19 Aug Closed-Loop Insulin Delivery During Pregnancy Improves Glucose Control
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Helen Murphy and Dr Zoe Stewart Institute of Metabolic Science University of Cambridge MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Controlling blood glucose levels is a daily challenge for people with Type 1 diabetes and is particularly crucial during pregnancy. Previous research shows that women with type 1 diabetes spend only 12 hours per day within the recommended glucose target levels, leading to increased rates of complications including preterm delivery and large for gestational age infants. National surveys show that one in two babies suffer complications related to type 1 diabetes in the mother. The hormonal changes that occur in pregnancy make it difficult for women to predict the best insulin doses for every meal and overnight. Too much insulin causes low glucose levels harmful for the mother and too little causes problems for the developing baby. The artificial pancreas automates the insulin delivery giving better glucose control than we can achieve with currently available treatments. Previous studies show that the closed-loop system also known as artificial pancreas can be used safely in children and adults and our study aimed to investigate whether or not it was helpful for women with type1 diabetes during pregnancy.19 Aug Most Antipsychotics Found To Not Raise Risk of Congenital Malformations
Posted at 00:05h
in Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, JAMA, Mental Health Research, OBGYNE
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_27170" align="alignleft" width="179"]
Dr. Krista Huybrechts[/caption]
Krista F. Huybrechts, M.S., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Epidemiologist
Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Boston, MA 02120
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The use of antipsychotic medications during pregnancy has doubled in the last decade. Yet, information on the safety of antipsychotic medication use during pregnancy for the developing fetus is very limited: existing studies tend to be small (the largest study available to date includes 570 exposed women) and findings have been inconsistent. Concerns have been raised about a potential association with congenital malformations.
The objective of our study was to examine the risk of congenital malformations overall, as well as cardiac malformations given findings from earlier studies, in a large cohort of pregnant women. We used a nationwide sample of 1.3 mln pregnant women insured through Medicaid between 2000-2010, of which 9,258 used an atypical antipsychotic and 733 used a typical antipsychotic during the first trimester, the etiologically relevant period for organogenesis. We also examined the risks associated with the most commonly used individual medications.
18 Aug Reported Early Stage Prostate Cancer Incidence Again Decreased
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27166" align="alignleft" width="138"]
Dr. Ahmedin Jemal[/caption]
Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PhD
Vice President, Surveillance and Health Services Research
American Cancer Society
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We previously showed large decrease in early stage prostate cancer incidence rates from 2011 to 2012 in men 50 years and older following the US Preventive services Task Force recommendation against routine prostate-specific antigen testing in 2011. In this paper, we examined whether the decrease in early stage incidence persisted through 2013.
We found that early stage prostate cancer incidence rates in men age 50 and older decreased from 2012 to 2013, although the decrease (6%) was lower compared to the decrease from 2011-2012 (19%). In contrast, rates for distant stage disease between 2012 and 2013 remained unchanged.
18 Aug Molecular Subtyping of Rectal Cancers Can Guide Prognosis, Treatment and Future Screening
Posted at 23:51h
in Author Interviews, Colon Cancer, Genetic Research, Journal Clinical Oncology, MD Anderson
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_27163" align="alignleft" width="114"]
Dr. Y. Nancy You[/caption]
Y. Nancy You, MD, MHSc
Associate Professor
Section of Colorectal Surgery
Department of Surgical Oncology
Medical Director
Familial High-risk Gastrointestinal Cancer Clinic
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Despite the progress in the treatment of many cancers, colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the third most common and lethal cancer in the US. Over 130,000 people are expected to be diagnosed and over 50,000 patients will die from CRC this year. In the recent years, the most exciting development has been our understanding of the molecular complexity of CRC.
Currently, four major molecular subtypes of colorectal cancer are recognized. Our study focuses on the Consensus Molecular Subtype 1, which accounts for up to 15% of CRCs, and is characterized by a deficiency in DNA mismatch repair (dMMR), a high level of mutations (i.e. hypermutated), by instability in parts of the genome called microsatellites, and by strong immune activation. Prior to our study, patients with rectal cancer that belong to this molecular subtype have represented an unknown, in terms of their prognosis, and how the tumors respond to current treatments. More importantly, this molecular subtype harbor a genetic condition that can be transmitted within the family called “Lynch Syndrome”. So we designed our study to fill these gaps in our understanding that exist in this subtype of CRCs and to highlight key clinical care issues related to the caring for patients with a genetic syndrome.
The main findings are that rectal cancers belonging to this molecular subtype have favorable prognosis, respond well to standard chemoradiation, and are linked to Lynch Syndrome and should be treated at centers with expertise in hereditary cancer syndromes.
18 Aug Linoleic Acid (Omega-6) in Fatty Tissue Linked To Lower Mortality
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27182" align="alignleft" width="149"]
Dr. David Iggman[/caption]
David Iggman, MD, PhD
Unit for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences
Uppsala University, Uppsala
Center for Clinical Research Dalarna
Falun, Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: There is some controversy regarding which dietary fats are preferable and in what amounts, not least regarding the polyunsaturated fats. It is also challenging to adequately assess peoples intakes of dietary fats.
The main findings of this study was that among fatty acids in the body (reflecting the intake during the last year or so), linoleic acid (omega-6) was associated with lower mortality in 71-year-old men with 15 years follow-up.
18 Aug No Difference In Asthma Exacerbations Between Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen in Young Children
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_27010" align="alignleft" width="120"]
Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul[/caption]
Wanda Phipatanakul, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Director, Asthma Clinical Research Center
Boston Children's Hospital
Asthma, Allergy and Immunology
Boston, MA 02115
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Acetaminophen (e.g., Tylenol, Panadol) and ibuprofen (e.g., Advil, Motrin) are the only available treatments for pain and fever in toddlers and the most commonly utilized medications worldwide. Recently there has been controversy and even alarm with suggestive observational data that acetaminophen makes asthma worse. This has led some experts to recommend the avoidance of acetaminophen in children with asthma. We sought to find the answer to this burning question through the first prospective, double-blind, randomized clinical trial comparing acetaminophen versus ibuprofen head to head for use when clinically indicated for fever or pain. Is there a difference in asthma morbidity (exacerbations) in young children between the age of 12-59 months, who have asthma?
17 Aug Fruit Extract Hydroxycitrate Shows Promise As Potential Therapy To Prevent Kidney Stones
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jeffrey D. Rimer PhD
Ernest J. and Barbara M. Henley Associate Professor
University of Houston
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Houston, TX 77204-4004
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: This project’s origin can be traced back to preliminary results obtained by Dr. John Asplin at Litholink Corporation revealing an organic acid, hydroxycitrate (HCA), was a promising inhibitor of calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) crystallization. COM is a principle component of human kidney stones. Interestingly, HCA is a molecular analogue of citrate (CA), the current therapy for stone disease. My research group at the University of Houston began collaborating with Dr. Asplin to explore the effects of HCA in more detail. We conducted in vitro assays using two techniques: bulk crystallization studies to quantify HCA efficacy and more detailed in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies to assess the growth of COM crystal surfaces in real time.
17 Aug All-Cause Mortality Increased in Women With History of Child Abuse
Posted at 23:34h
in Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Gender Differences, JAMA, Mental Health Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_27045" align="alignleft" width="178"]
Dr. Edith Chen[/caption]
Edith Chen, Ph.D. Professor
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
Department of Psychology
Evanston, IL 60208-2710
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Previous research has documented psychiatric consequences of childhood abuse, but less is known about possible physical health consequences.
The main finding is that women who self-reported childhood abuse (in adulthood) were at greater risk for all-cause mortality compared to those who did not report abuse.