Study Tests Office-Based Transperineal Approach to Prostate Biopsies
A multicenter randomized trial compared transperineal prostate biopsy without antibiotic prophylaxis versus transrectal biopsy with targeted prophylaxis, examining infections, prostate cancer detection, pain, and other measures. The findings were presented at the recent Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. In this exclusive MedPage Today video, investigator Jim C. Hu, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York […]
E-Cigs Show Some Benefit as Smoking Cessation Aid in Clinical Trial
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) helped people better stick to smoking cessation in the randomized controlled ESTxENDS trial. Participants smoking at least five tobacco cigarettes a day at baseline showed validated continuous abstinence from tobacco smoking at 6 months in 28.9% of cases after getting free e-cigarettes and counseling, which was significantly better than the 16.3% abstinence […]
New Data in NSCLC Bolster Support for Perioperative Immunotherapy
CHICAGO — A randomized trial testing the addition of perioperative pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to chemotherapy in operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) hit one of its two primary endpoints in an interim analysis, with a favorable trend for the other. All patients in the study received cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and at 2 years, the event-free survival […]
Vitamin D Ruled Out as Solution to Statin Intolerance
Vitamin D supplementation did not ease the muscle symptoms of statin users in the randomized VITAL trial, a substudy showed. Over 4.8 years of follow-up, 31% of statin users assigned to vitamin D reported muscle pain or discomfort lasting several days, which was the same proportion as those assigned placebo, with 13% of both groups […]
Vitamin D Failed to Stop COVID, Other Respiratory Infections
Vitamin D supplements did not ward off COVID-19 or other respiratory infections, two randomized controlled trials showed. Among 6,200 participants in a phase III study from the U.K., 2.6% of those in the control group developed COVID-19 compared with 3.6% of those who received 800 IU vitamin D daily (OR 1.39, 95% CI 0.98-1.97) and […]
Fewer Headache Days With Acupuncture
Acupuncture helped reduce the frequency of chronic tension-type headaches (CTTH), a randomized controlled trial in China found. More than two-thirds (68.2%) of people with CTTH who received true acupuncture reported at least a 50% reduction in the number of monthly headache days at week 16, compared with 48.1% who had superficial acupuncture (OR 2.65, 95% […]
Immunotherapy Rechallenge in NSCLC Yields Overall Survival Boost
CHICAGO — Randomized data suggest that an anti-angiogenic agent can kick-start immunotherapy’s antitumor activity in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients whose disease has already progressed after chemotherapy and a checkpoint inhibitor. In the phase II study, median overall survival improved by nearly 3 months with ramucirumab (Cyramza) plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda) versus standard-of-care options (14.5 […]
Coffee Causes This One Arrhythmia, Trial Shows
Coffee consumption had a complex relationship with arrhythmias, a randomized trial with real-time electrocardiography patch monitoring showed. Premature atrial contractions weren’t caused by coffee consumption, whereas premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) were, reported Gregory Marcus, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, at the American Heart Association (AHA) virtual meeting. PVCs were 54% more likely […]
Study identifies molecule that stimulates muscle-building in humans
In a randomized control study of 10 healthy young men, researchers compared how consuming the single amino acid leucine or its two-molecule equivalent, dileucine, influenced muscle-building and breakdown. They found that dileucine boosts the metabolic processes that drive muscle growth 42% more than free leucine does. They report their findings in the Journal of Applied […]