Category: Regulations
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Clinical Trial Tests Implantable Melanoma Vaccine
Engineering and medical researchers at Harvard University, with colleagues from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, started an early-stage clinical trial testing an implanted vaccine to treat melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer.The trial is designed primarily to test the safety of the proposed treatments with patients having advanced melanoma that has spread in the body,…
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Top Hospital Infection Costs Estimated at $9.8B Per Year
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston estimate the annual cost of the five leading infections contracted in health care facilities in the U.S. at $9.8 billion, with surgical site infections causing about one-third of those costs. The team led by Brigham and Women’s research fellow Eyal Zimlichman published its…
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Menthol Cigarette Smoking Rising Among Teens, Young Adults
Public health researchers from University at Buffalo in New York found smoking of mentholated cigarettes is increasing among teenagers and young adults in the U.S., while smoking of non-menthol cigarettes declined in this age group. The findings of the team led by Buffalo’s Gary Giovino — with colleagues from Johns Hopkins and Georgetown universities, Biostatistics…
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Genetic Technique Tracks Salmonella Strain in Supply Chain
Agricultural scientists at Pennsylvania State University found a way of identifying and tracking strains of antibiotic resistant Salmonella bacteria through the food supply chain, even if the strain evolves. The team from the lab of food science professor Edward Dudley describes the technique in the September issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (paid…
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Trial Testing Rose Bengal Compound as Melanoma Treatment
A new clinical trial at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida is testing a compound derived from rose bengal, a dye for diagnosing eye disorders, as an injectable treatment for melanoma, a form of skin cancer. The early-stage trial is conducted with Provectus Pharmaceuticals in Knoxville, Tennessee that is commercializing the compound, known as PV-10.…
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Cancer Care Plans Help Survivors Make Lifestyle Changes
Medical researchers at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia found online care plans encourage cancer survivors to make needed lifestyle changes to help them cope with their treatments. This finding and other results appear online this month in the journal Cancer (paid subscription required). The Institute of Medicine recommended in a 2005 report that cancer patients…
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FDA Grants Muscle-Wasting Disease Drug Breakthrough Status
The global pharmaceutical company Novartis says the Food and Drug Administration granted its therapy candidate bimagrumab breakthrough status to treat a rare muscle-wasting condition for which there are currently no approved treatments. FDA designates new drugs for serious or life-threatening conditions as breakthroughs to expedite their review in the agency. The disorder is known as…
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Trial Testing Non-Invasive Neurostimulation for Migraine
A clinical trial is underway testing a hand-held device developed by Electrocore LLC in Basking Ridge, New Jersey that stimulates the vagus nerve as a treatment for migraine and cluster headaches. The company says it completed enrollment of 60 patients at six sites in the U.S., with results of the study expected in the second…
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Data Review Indicates Drug Improves Brain Cancer Survival
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found patients who took the drug bevacizumab for the brain cancer glioblastoma lived somewhat longer than patients with the disease before the drug’s FDA approval in 2009. The team of neurologists Derek Johnson, Heather Leeper, and Joon Uhm describe their findings in a recent issue of the journal…
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Trial Shows Glucose-Lowering Drug Effective with Elderly
A late-stage clinical trial shows the drug linagliptin, marketed by Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company, helps elderly patients with type 2 diabetes lower their blood glucose levels. Researchers from Boehringer Ingelheim and University of Birmingham in the U.K. describe their findings online this week in the journal The Lancet (paid subscription required). Linagliptin —…