Steroid Fails to Boost Survival in Advanced HIV Patients With TB Meningitis
Adding dexamethasone to treatment for tuberculous (TB) meningitis among heavily immunosuppressed HIV-positive patients in a low-resource setting did not significantly improve survival or confer any other measured benefits, a randomized controlled trial showed. Among 520 HIV-positive adults in Vietnam and Indonesia who received a year of chemotherapy for TB meningitis, 44.1% of those who also […]
Novel Capsid Inhibitor Approved for Super-Refractory HIV
The FDA approved lenacapavir (Sunlenca) in combination with antiretroviral therapy (ART) for heavily pretreated HIV-1 patients with drug-resistant infections, and for those who cannot tolerate other available options. Lenacapavir, a first-in-class long-acting HIV capsid inhibitor, is initially administered via oral tablets (300 mg) and subcutaneous shots (463.5 mg/1.5 mL), which are then followed by maintenance […]
Adagrasib Shows Anti-Tumor Activity in Heavily Pretreated KRAS-Mutant CRC
Adagrasib (Krazati) demonstrated antitumor activity in heavily pretreated patients with KRAS G12C-mutated, metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC), according to phase I/II study results. Monotherapy with the oral KRAS inhibitor led to responses in 19% (95% CI 8-33) of 43 evaluable patients with CRC, with a median duration of response of 4.3 months (95% CI 2.3-8.3) and […]
New Surprise Billing Arbitration Guidance May Give Docs More Wiggle Room
Last week, CMS updated guidance on the heavily disputed aspects of an arbitration process for resolving payment disagreements between insurers and providers under the No Surprises Act. The updates to this guidance were made in response to a Texas ruling that compelled HHS to change how dispute resolution entities would approach the pricing benchmark known […]
Novel Drug Helped HIV Patients Achieve Viral Suppression
More than 80% of heavily treatment-experienced HIV patients with multi-drug resistance who received long-acting subcutaneous lenacapavir along with an optimized background regimen experienced viral suppression at week 26, according to results of an ongoing randomized phase II/III trial. Overall, 81% of patients randomized to the investigational agent lenacapavir with an optimized background regimen of antiretroviral […]