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 […]
Add-On Clarithromycin Pans Out in Community-Acquired Pneumonia Trial
In a phase III trial, the addition of oral clarithromycin to beta-lactam antibiotic treatment improved the clinical response of people with community-acquired pneumonia who had systemic inflammatory response syndrome, findings that support existing guidelines. In the study, the proportion of patients meeting the primary composite endpoint after 72 hours of treatment — fulfilling criteria for […]
Psychedelics for Psych Conditions Made Their Mark in 2023
In January, we reported on an investigational psychedelic that alleviated symptoms of depression in a mid-stage trial. In this report, we follow up on what has happened since that study was published. In the phase IIa trial, an investigational N,N-dimethyltryptamine treatment — commonly known as the hallucinogen DMT — significantly reduced depressive symptoms by 7.4 […]
‘End of This Phase’: Trial Halts Testing of HIV Vaccine Candidates
The PrEPVacc trial has stopped administering two investigational HIV vaccines that showed no efficacy in preventing infection, investigators announced on Wednesday during the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa in Zimbabwe. “Vaccinations to PrEPVacc trial participants have been stopped because an analysis of the data collected so far by our Independent Data Monitoring […]
TULSA Effective in Controlling Prostate Cancer Long-Term
WASHINGTON — Results from a long-term follow-up of the pivotal TACT trial showed that MRI-guided transurethral ultrasound ablation (TULSA) was effective and durable in men with localized prostate cancer. The median prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level at 5 years was 0.63 ng/mL — a 90% reduction from the median PSA at baseline, reported Scott Eggener, MD, […]
Vitamin D supplements do not prevent bone fractures in children
A major clinical trial led by Queen Mary University of London and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has found that vitamin D supplements do not increase bone strength or prevent bone fractures in children with vitamin D deficiency. The findings challenge widely held perceptions relating to the effects of vitamin D on […]
Fecal Transplants in Kidney Recipients Reduced Resistant Pathogens
In the single-center PREMIX clinical trial, most renal transplant recipients were negative for multidrug-resistant pathogens shortly after receiving fecal microbiota transplants (FMT), with longer times to recurrent infections. Eight of 10 participants who received a least one FMT, and eight of nine participants who received all FMT treatments were multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) negative by day […]
Sotorasib’s Confirmatory Data in NSCLC Unreliable, Says FDA Panel
An FDA advisory committee on Thursday said the confirmatory trial data for the KRAS inhibitor sotorasib (Lumakras) in previously treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cannot be reliably interpreted in the CodeBreaK 200 study. Most members of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) agreed with FDA staff that multiple sources of systemic bias during the […]
New Antiviral Option for CMV Prophylaxis After Kidney Transplant
Letermovir (Prevymis) proved noninferior to valganciclovir (Valcyte), the standard of care, in a clinical trial of cytomegalovirus (CMV) prophylaxis in high-risk kidney transplant patients, researchers reported. In a phase III trial of 589 patients randomized 1:1 to receive either drug for up to 200 days post-transplant, the prevalence of CMV disease at 1 year was […]
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 […]