Neal Meropol MD discusses FDA decision to remove Avastin for breast cancer treatment
Roland Moskowitz MD discusses rheumatoid arthritis with ABC News
Abbott Receives U.S. FDA Approval For XIENCE Nano™ To Treat Coronary Artery Disease In Small Vessels
May 25, ‘11
Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the XIENCE nano™ Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System for the treatment of coronary artery disease in small vessels. XIENCE nano, which is based on the same platform as the XIENCE V® Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System, offers physicians in the United States a new option for treating patients with coronary artery disease in vessels as small as 2.25 mm in diameter. “The treatment of small vessels is often complex and associated with higher rates of complications compared to larger vessels,” said Marco Costa, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, director of the Interventional Cardiovascular Center, and director of the Center for Research and Innovation, Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and principal investigator of the SPIRIT Small Vessel clinical trial. “I am confident that the highly deliverable XIENCE nano stent, with its thin struts and effective everolimus-eluting platform, will help physicians treat their patients who have coronary artery disease in small vessels.”
http://www.medilexicon.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=226368
BusinessWeek
Drinking sugar-sweetened sodas and fruit drinks appears to be associated with a greater risk for high blood pressure among adults, a new study suggests.
Dr. Sahil Parikh, Professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, and cardiologist at the Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, said the findings “fall along the lines of the kind of common sense your mother would offer.”
“We have long known that sugary drinks are bad for you, because they are a lot of empty calories,” he said. “But what makes this study important is that it suggests that beyond just making you fatter these drinks also prompt hypertension, which can increase the incidence of heart attack and stroke.”
“Now we will need to have future studies to understand how this works,” Parikh added, “because even though this data shows a pretty clear association between sugary drinks and high blood pressure, it doesn’t definitively suggest a mechanistic link.”
“Having said that, as a cardiologist my concern is how do we minimize our risk factors for cardiovascular events,” he continued. “And we know the way to do that is to avoid tobacco use and avoid obesity. So to the extent that one can control calorie intake, there really isn’t a downside to eliminating sugar drinks. They’re empty calories of limited value. So why not do that?”
In response to the latest findings, the American Beverage Association issued a statement Monday saying that while high blood pressure is “a serious health concern,” the current study “does not and cannot establish that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages in any way causes hypertension.”
Read the full story :: BusinessWeek
The New York Times
As a medical student and later during my residency, I trained for some time in a medical center known for its research and clinical trials. Every week, patients with rare diseases and cancers that had not responded to standard therapy arrived from all over the country, eager to try something new, even if the efficacy of the treatments had not yet been proven.
But placed in the context of early-phase clinical cancer trials, unrealistic optimism results in a perfect ethical storm. “You have oncology, a field of medicine that is strongly evidence-based and research-intensive, and you have a population of patients who are experiencing an immediate threat to their lives,” said Dr. Neal J. Meropol, a researcher who has done extensive work on the ethics of early-phase cancer trials and chief of the division of hematology and oncology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
“Patients almost invariably take part in early-phase clinical trials because they believe they will personally benefit.”
Read the full story :: New York Times
In a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, physician-scientists are exploring a new method to potentially prevent recurrence of an early stage, aggressive type of breast cancer.
The pilot study, conducted by Joe Baar, MD, Professor, Division of Hematology Oncology, Director of Breast Cancer Research at UH Case Medical Center’s Seidman Cancer Center, is recruiting patients with HER-2 neu+ breast cancer. “This study has the potential to change the standard of care for women with this type of breast cancer, which tends to spread very quickly,” says Dr. Baar, who is also Associate Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Read the full article :: Medical News Today
Life Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: LIFE) announced it has received FDA 510(k) clearance for StemPro® MSC SFM a first for this next-generation stem cell culture medium that is now cleared as a medical device and satisfies a crucial requirement for researchers involved in clinical trials in the United States…”
An FDA-cleared, serum-free medium certainly provides a positive step toward moving away from mostly animal-based products for growing mesenchymal stem cells,” said Stanton L. Gerson, MD, Professor, Division of Hematology Oncology in the Department of Medicine, Director, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and the National Center for Regenerative Medicine, at Case Western Reserve University, a pioneer in the use of adult stem cells to treat cancer and heart disease who is also part of a team conducting early phase clinical trials with MSCs to treat graft-versus-host disease and multiple sclerosis. “Growth media that is better defined can facilitate regulatory requirements. Ultimately, clinical trials will determine whether it benefits patients.”
The common culprits for digestive issues are cooked food, since heat destroys the natural enzymes found in raw foods that aid in digestion, and aging, due to a decline in enzyme production of about 13 percent with each passing decade, said Dr. Steven Lamm, a board-certified internist and faculty member at the NYU Medical Center.
While those who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, heartburn, acid reflux (also known as gastroesophageal reflux disease) or an ulcer will have various reactions to different foods and drinks, experts agree the following 10 items are likely to irritate one of more of these tummy-related conditions.
Stomach-sensitive food: mint
Why it can affect you: While peppermint has numerous benefits, including aiding in digestive issues, it can also have the reverse effect and increase heartburn symptoms, Dr. Gerald Ashton Isenberg, who works in the gastroenterology department at UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, told AOL Health. “Mint increases the chance of acid reflux because it relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter, a muscle that is located at the end of the esophagus, allowing acid from the stomach to back up into the food pipe,” he explained. Keep in mind this holds true for anything that contains mint, such as peppermint tea and even peppermint gum and breath mints.