Popular Articles

Senators Seek $100 Billion For Health Reform From Insurers
"Key senators say they want to force the health insurance industry to pay as much as $100 billion toward the 10-year cost of the health care overhaul sought by President Obama," CQ Politics reports. The fees would come on top of a variety of other potential provisions that will change the landscape of their industry, from the requirement that insurers cover people with pre-existing conditions to a government-run plan meant to compete with insurers. The fee may appear in a Finance Committee version of the reform plan that hasn"t been released yet. That committee is responsible for finding ways to pay for the overhaul.

Efficacy Of Tecarfarin Mirrors Earlier Studies While Primary Endpoint Missed
ARYx Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARYX), a biopharmaceutical company, announced results from its Phase 2/3 clinical trial, EmbraceAC, comparing its novel anticoagulant agent tecarfarin (previously ATI-5923) with the leading oral anticoagulant warfarin. In this trial, tecarfarin demonstrated efficacy essentially the same as in earlier Phase 2 studies but did not achieve the primary endpoint of superiority over warfarin, as measured by time in therapeutic range (TTR). This was due to the virtually unprecedented performance of warfarin in this trial. Using the International Normalized Ratio (INR), which is the standard measure of anticoagulation to evaluate TTR, the patients in the trial who were administered tecarfarin stayed within the target therapeutic range 74.0% of the time treated as compared to those patients receiving warfarin who stayed within the target therapeutic range 73.2% of the time (p=0.506). The result for the warfarin group was unexpected based upon the extensive history of prior studies and published literature for the drug. Tecarfarin appeared to be well tolerated by the patients in this Phase 2/3 clinical trial.
News of the day
Amgen Announces KRAS Safety Update To U.S. Prescribing Information For Vectibix(R) (Panitumumab)
Amgen Inc. (Nasdaq: AMGN) announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved revisions to the U.S. prescribing information for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr) class of antibodies, including Vectibix((R)) (panitumumab). This decision follows the FDA"s December 2008 Oncologics Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) meeting where the clinical utility of the KRAS gene as a predictive biomarker in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treated with anti-EGFr antibody was discussed.
Cardiovascular

Physical Activity Reduces Prostate Carcinogenesis In A Transgenic Model

UroToday.com - A recent European study demonstrated that 10-year mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer was decreased in a population of 70 to 90 year olds who adhered to a Mediterranean diet, were physically active, had moderate alcohol consumption and did not smoke. There are also reports suggesting an inverse association between physical activity and risk of prostate cancer (CaP). Yet mechanisms linking lifestyle and longevity are not well investigated. This report in The Prostate investigates an animal model for the association between physical activity and development of CaP. Male C3(1)Tag mice were used in the study. These mice are predisposed to CaP due to the directed expression of SV40 oncogenes to that organ combined with voluntary exercise. Exercise consisted of running on a computer monitored running wheel. Nine mice served as non-running controls and 20 mice were in the running group. The amount of running by each mouse was recorded by the computer and access to the wheel was continuous. In this model, detectable prostate carcinogenesis is usually underway by 20 weeks of age. Histopathology was performed at 20 weeks of age by blinded interpretation. Mice ran for an average of 4.03km/day and at an average speed of 0.72km/hr. There was no difference between the two groups regarding increase in body weight over time. There were no apparent differences in histopathology grading between mice housed in standard cages and those in the running cages. In subgroup analysis, mice that ran >5km/day exhibited a trend for more normal prostate phenotype. Thus the suggestion is that CaP is likely delayed or diminished by increase wheel running in transgenic C3(1)Tag mice, but this observation was limited to the mice who run >5km/day. The study is novel and may require remodeling to further substantiate the hypothesis. Esser KA, Harpole CE, Prins GS, Diamond AM Prostate. 2009 Jun 1. (Epub ahead of print) 10.1002/pros.20987 Written by UroToday.com Contributing Editor Christopher P. Evans, MD, FACS UroToday - the only urology website with original content written by global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice. To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to: www.urotoday.com Copyright © 2009 - UroToday


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):