The Future of ART Regimens for HIV Is in Long-Acting Agents
Recent developments in antiretroviral therapy (ART) include longer-acting therapies that don’t require a daily oral pill and two-drug regimens that could decrease toxicity associated with standard triple-drug regimens. The approval of cabotegravir plus rilpivirine (Cabenuva) in January 2021 was the first to provide both benefits as a monthly ART injection. The approval was expanded to […]
Doublet Shows Activity in Rare, Aggressive Kidney Cancer
There is currently no effective therapy for patients with advanced HLRCC-associated papillary renal cell carcinoma. Treatment with bevacizumab and erlotinib resulted in a confirmed response of 72% in patients with hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma. The combination was approximately half as effective in patients with sporadic papillary renal cell carcinoma. Bevacizumab (Avastin) combined with erlotinib […]
Spinal Delivery of Gene Therapy Promising for Neurodegenerative Disease
Gene therapy delivered for the first time via lumbar puncture showed promise of benefit in slowing progression of giant axonal neuropathy (GAN) in a phase I clinical trial. The slope of change in motor function went from -7.17 percentage points per year before treatment to -0.54 percentage points with the lowest dose to an improvement […]
Pediatric Neuron Disease Gets Its First Gene Therapy
The FDA approved atidarsagene autotemcel (arsa-cel; Lenmeldy), the first gene therapy to treat children with pre-symptomatic late infantile, pre-symptomatic early juvenile, or early symptomatic early juvenile metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD), the agency announced on Monday. “This is the first FDA-approved treatment option for children who have this rare genetic disease,” Peter Marks, MD, PhD, director of […]
Novel CAR-T for Glioblastoma Induced ‘Dramatic’ Responses in Early Trial
A new approach to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy showed promise in treating recurrent glioblastoma, according to a small phase I study. In the first-in-human trial, three patients with recurrent glioblastoma who were treated with CARv3-TEAM-E T cells experienced “dramatic and rapid” tumor regression within days of receiving a single intraventricular infusion, reported Marcela […]
Once-Weekly ART Showed Similar Efficacy for HIV as Daily ART
DENVER — A once-weekly oral antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen of the investigational drug islatravir, a nucleoside reverse transcriptase translocation inhibitor, with lenacapavir (Sunlenca) showed similar efficacy to daily oral ART in people with HIV, a phase II randomized study showed. The virologic suppression rate was 94.2% in both the patients who received the weekly regimen […]
Monthly ART Injections Top Pills for HIV Patients With Adherence Problems
Long-acting cabotegravir/rilpivirine (Cabenuva; CAB/RPV-LA) appeared superior to daily oral antiretroviral therapy (ART) in maintaining viral load suppression for people living with HIV who have trouble adhering to oral ART, according to an interim analysis of a phase III trial. At 52 weeks, numerically fewer patients assigned to monthly injections of CAB/RPV-LA experienced regimen failure — […]
Long-Acting Injectable Comparable to Oral ART for HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa
DENVER — Long-acting cabotegravir/rilpivirine (Cabenuva) injectable therapy resulted in similarly high levels of viral suppression to oral antiretroviral therapy (ART) in African patients with HIV, a phase IIIb randomized, open-label trial showed. At 48 weeks, 96.9% of participants receiving cabotegravir/rilpivirine had a viral load of less than 50 copies/mL compared with 97.3% of those receiving […]
Study Backs Recommended Antibiotic Approach for Aspiration Pneumonia
Antibiotic therapy with extended anaerobic coverage (EAC) was not associated with a survival benefit in patients with community-acquired aspiration pneumonia, according to results from a retrospective cohort study that support current guidelines. Across 18 hospitals in Canada, in-hospital mortality rates were 30.3% for patients treated with antibiotic therapy with limited anaerobic coverage (LAC) and 32.1% […]
Radioligand Therapy Continues to Show Promise for Metastatic CRPC
Radioligand therapy (RLT) with actinium-225 targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (225Ac-PSMA) had a “substantial antitumor effect” in heavily pretreated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), a large, retrospective, multicenter study showed. Data on 488 men showed an overall survival (OS) of 15.5 months and median progression-free survival (PFS) of 7.9 months. A third of the patients had […]