Older Multiple Myeloma Patients can be Spared of Long-Term Steroids

The combination of cancer therapy lenalidomide plus the steroid dexamethasone (together called Rd) is considered standard treatment for elderly patients with multiple myeloma. However, prolonged steroid use can be harmful for some older adults. A new study published in Blood found that switching select older patients to a lower dose of lenalidomide and discontinuing dexamethasone after nine…

A New Way to Prevent Nerve Damage Caused by Chemotherapy?

About 60% of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy develop painful nerve damage but no drugs exist to prevent this complication. Now a new study—that identifies how one agent causes nerve degeneration—may lead to the development of the first drugs to prevent peripheral neuropathy and identify people who may be at greatest risk of developing the…

New drug targets for childhood cancer identified

The largest single cell study to date of the childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, has answered important questions about the genesis of the disease. The researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, discovered that all neuroblastomas arise from a single type of embryonic cell called…

Opioid prescriptions remained elevated two years after critical care

Nearly 11 percent of people admitted to an intensive care unit in Sweden between 2010 and 2018 received opioid prescriptions on a regular basis for at least six months and up to two years after discharge. That is according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in Critical Care Medicine. The findings suggest some…

Drug screens and CRISPR combine to help make better cancer drugs

A new study has created the most comprehensive analysis for understanding how cancer drugs work at a molecular level. Scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and AstraZeneca combined drug response data with CRISPR genetic screens across hundreds of cancer cell lines to better understand precisely how drugs target cancer cells….

Common hypertension medications may reduce colorectal cancer risk

Medications commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure may also reduce patients’ colorectal cancer risk, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-i) or angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) medications are prescribed for conditions such as heart failure, high blood pressure or heart disease. These…

Hacia un cambio del modelo de terapia en enfermedad renal diabética

La enfermedad renal diabética se dirige hacia un cambio del modelo de tratamiento. Este tema ha sido debatido por expertos de diferentes especialidades pertenecientes al Grupo Clínico y Traslacional en Diabetes (CTD),con motivo de su primer encuentro virtual. La reunión comenzó con un emotivo homenaje en memoria del Dr. Alberto Tejedor, fallecido recientemente.A continuación, los…

Anticoagulantes de acción directa para el tromboembolismo pulmonar

La Sociedad Española de Cardiología (SEC)apoya el uso de anticoagulantes de acción directa (ACOD) como tratamiento de elección para la enfermedad tromboembólica venosa (ETEV), siguiendo la línea de las Guías de práctica clínica para el diagnóstico y manejo del embolismo pulmonar agudo, publicadas en 2019 por la Sociedad Europea de Cardiología (ESC) y la Sociedad…

Microbiome and leukemia linked in animal model- EHA virtual meeting

Genetic predisposition to childhood leukemia is frequent (>1-5%), but less than 1% of genetic carriers will actually develop the disease. Infectious stimuli are believed to play a major role in the etiology of the most common types of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, but the critical determinants leading to oncogenesis in children are unknown. We are trying…

New study shows how ketamine combats depression

The anaesthetic drug ketamine has been shown, in low doses, to have a rapid effect on difficult-to-treat depression. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet now report that they have identified a key target for the drug: specific serotonin receptors in the brain. Their findings, which are published in Translational Psychiatry, give hope of new, effective antidepressants. Depression…