Medical Condition News

RSS

Gilead stops ARTEMIS-IPF ambrisentan Phase III clinical trial in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Gilead Sciences, Inc. today announced it is stopping ARTEMIS-IPF, the company's ongoing Phase III clinical trial of ambrisentan in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), due to lack of efficacy. This decision follows an interim analysis of unblinded efficacy and safety data by the study's Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) and review of those data by Gilead, which did not show evidence of a treatment benefit in the group of patients randomized to receive ambrisentan.

23 Dec 2010

Fried fish consumption may increase risk of stroke

People living in the "stroke belt" states eat more fried fish than people living in the rest of the country, which may contribute to the high rate of death from stroke in those states, according to a study published in the December 22, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

23 Dec 2010

Research: Arsenic trioxide may benefit individuals with connective brain tumors

Arsenic is usually thought of as a poison. Despite this, it has been used in medicine for over 2000 years, and the arsenic compound arsenic trioxide (ATO) is FDA approved for the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia.

23 Dec 2010

Merck announces FDA approval for GARDASIL against HPV-related anal cancer

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved GARDASIL® [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16, and 18) Vaccine, Recombinant] for the prevention of anal cancer caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 and for the prevention of anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) grades 1, 2 and 3 (anal dysplasias and precancerous lesions) caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18, in males and females 9 through 26 years of age.

23 Dec 2010

Certain drugs may block tumor host interactions but do not destroy cancer cells

A class of drugs thought to kill cancer cells may in fact block "cross talk" between the cancer cell and normal immune cells, resulting in reduced cancer growth and spread-a discovery that could significantly alter the way cancer drugs are evaluated in the future.

23 Dec 2010

Enrollment begins in Phase 2 trial of RegeneRx’s RGN-259 in dry eye associated with graft vs. host disease

RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the first patient has been screened and is being enrolled in a Phase 2 clinical trial testing the Company's drug candidate RGN-259 in patients with dry eye associated with graft vs. host disease. The double-blind, placebo-controlled, investigator-sponsored trial is expected to enroll a total of 20 patients over the next several months, with data reported later in 2011. RGN-259 is a sterile, preservative-free topical eye drop formulation of the novel therapeutic peptide Thymosin beta 4, or Tβ4.

23 Dec 2010

Patients with over expression of P-Rex1 protein are more likely to develop cancer metastasis

Overexpression or hyperactivation of ErbB cell-surface receptors drives the growth of many breast cancers. Drugs, like Herceptin, that block the receptors' signals halt tumor progression in some patients.

23 Dec 2010

New study reveals statin therapy linked to reduced postoperative mortality

Statin drugs were first introduced to lower blood cholesterol concentrations; however, research is now discovering other benefits. A new study from France, published in the January 2011 issue of Anesthesiology, is the first to analyze the impact of preoperative chronic statin therapy on postoperative adverse events in surgical patients. Findings from the study suggest that statin therapy is associated with reduced postoperative mortality.

23 Dec 2010

Photon-based radiation therapy may result in better survival rate in patients with spinal-cord tumor

A study comparing the long-term outcomes of patients with spinal-cord tumors following radiation therapy suggests that certain subsets of patients have better long-term survival.

23 Dec 2010

Amylin, Lilly submit BYETTA sNDA for type 2 diabetes

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company today announced that a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) has been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the expanded use of BYETTA® (exenatide) injection as an add-on therapy to basal insulin, with or without metformin and/or a thiazolidinedione (TZD) in conjunction with diet and exercise for adults with type 2 diabetes who are not achieving adequate glycemic control.

23 Dec 2010

FDA approves Gardasil for prevention of anal cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the vaccine Gardasil for the prevention of anal cancer and associated precancerous lesions due to human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16, and 18 in people ages 9 through 26 years.

23 Dec 2010

Researchers discover protein that suppresses melanoma progression

In a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments for patients with malignant melanoma, researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that a particular protein suppresses the progression of melanoma through regulation of an oncogene, or gene responsible for cancer growth. The study is published in the December 23 issue of Nature.

23 Dec 2010

mTORC1 cellular pathway affects aging phenotype

Whitehead Institute researchers have linked hyperactivity in the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) cellular pathway, to reduced ketone production, which is a well-defined physiological trait of aging in mice.

23 Dec 2010

NCI grants U-M Cancer Center $10.7M for study of colorectal and pancreatic cancer

The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has received a five-year $10.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study colorectal and pancreatic cancer.

23 Dec 2010

Loyola researcher receives $1.3 million NIH grant to study key heart protein

Loyola University Health System researcher Sakthivel Sadayappan, PhD, has been awarded a four-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study a protein that is critical for the normal functioning of the heart.

23 Dec 2010

TMEM106B gene appears to protect against frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Neuroscientists had assumed that a mutation in the progranulin gene, which makes the progranulin protein and supports brain neurons, was sufficient to produce a kind of dementia known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration. But now an international team of scientists led by researchers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida have found another genetic factor they say appears to protect against the disorder in progranulin mutation carriers.

23 Dec 2010

FDA approves Novartis' Amturnide for treatment of high blood pressure

Today Novartis announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Amturnide (aliskiren, amlodipine and hydrochlorothiazide) tablets for the treatment of high blood pressure. Amturnide combines the only approved direct renin inhibitor worldwide, Tekturna (aliskiren), with the widely used calcium channel blocker amlodipine and the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ).

23 Dec 2010

Immunomedics announces additional claim for RS7 antibodies patent family

Immunomedics, a biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on the development of monoclonal antibody-based products for the targeted treatment of cancer, autoimmune and other serious diseases, today announced that additional claims for the patent family, "RS7 antibodies," were issued as Patent No. 1,002,443 in Korea.

23 Dec 2010

Minorities with MS may face risk of developing depressive symptoms

Multiple sclerosis can cause significant physical impairment, including fatigue, pain, muscle spasms, tremors and dizziness. For many with MS, the disease wreaks havoc with emotional well-being, too, and according to a new study, minorities might especially be at risk for developing depressive symptoms.

23 Dec 2010

Novel method to analyze fatigue through speech

What can scientists learn from watching a group of people sitting around, chatting, playing movies, reading, and happily making new friends? Quite a lot, says University of Melbourne, Australia acoustician Adam Vogel, who carefully observed this sort of group in a fatigue management study he and his colleagues describe this month in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

22 Dec 2010