Author Interviews, Gastrointestinal Disease / 06.05.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gregory S. Sayuk, MD, MPH John T. Milliken Department of Medicine Division of Gastroenterology Associate Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry Associate Director, Fellowship Training Program Washington University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The primary objective of this analysis, “Plecanatide for Patients with Chronic Idiopathic Constipation and Irritable Bowel Syndrome‒Constipation: Analysis of Abdominal Pain from Four Randomized Phase 3 Clinical Trials,” was to determine the impact of plecanatide on abdominal pain in patients with chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C), in addition to comparing efficacy results in patient populations with minimal to mild pain versus moderate to severe pain at baseline. This was a post hoc analysis of data from the four large, phase 3 plecanatide pivotal trials in CIC and IBS-C. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Colon Cancer / 05.09.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Andrea Sottoriva, PhD Centre for Evolution and Cancer, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, United Kingdom MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain what is meant by a liquid biopsy? Response: Cetuximab is a targeted treatment available for metastatic colorectal cancer patients. Unfortunately, although many patients benefit from Cetuximab, after an initial response to the treatment many patients relapse and become resistant to the drug. We know that this resistance is due to the tumour evolving and adapting to therapy. Liquid biopsies allow to look for residual cancer DNA in the blood of a patient and hence monitor the emergence of resistance over time. We used blood samples take every 4 weeks (quite frequently for this type of study) to monitor the evolution of the cancers under treatment and see if there were some measurements that would predict if and when patients will relapse. (more…)