Clinical

With more patients surviving cancer comes more effort to ensure that treatment itself does not shorten life, especially by damaging the heart. A special issue of Evidence-Based Oncology that takes a look at the growing specialty of cardio-oncology starts with a feature on the program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

This week the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions was held in Boston with results on 2 cardiovascular outcomes trials for diabetes drugs, and FDA advisory panels voted in favor of 2 PCSK9 inhibitors.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is drafting language that will help create an in vitro center within the FDA to define risk categories for laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), and set timelines to accelerate the approval process for LDTs.

Considerations such as the potency of the drug, the practicality of the regimen, and the price go into decision-making.

What patients have heard from others with diabetes matters when they receive a diagnosis, according to the opening speaker at Patient-Centered Diabetes Care 2015.

There was a strong connection between the proportion of patients a physician already had enrolled in hospice care and whether or not other patients would enroll in hospice, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

Delegates from the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have voiced a strong support to banning non-medical exceptions to childhood vaccination, citing a danger to public health.

State policies have had little impact on closing the margin between supply and demand for organ donations, according to a study published this month in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The drug, baricitinib, is a JAK-STAT inhibitor being developed for rheumatoid arthritis. Research by scientists at the Unviersity of Michigan found a key role for the pathway in diabetic patients suffering from kidney disease.

The study found that early palliative care consultations in hospitalized cancer patients significantly reduced the cost of hospital stays.

Editorials that appeared during the run-up to the FDA advisory committee meetings noted the lack of long-term cardiovascular data and the need to be cautious about lowering cholesterol at any cost.

Developed jointly by Sanofi and Regeneron, alirocumab (Praluent) was approved 13-3 by an FDA advisory committee.

A preliminary review of Amgen's evolocumab antibody (Repatha) by the Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee, raises a few safety concerns and a call for ongoing monitoring, especially in patients with a high-risk of cardiovascular disease.

Results are the first from a cardiovascular safety trial in the GLP-1 agonist class. A commentator at the 75th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association asked whether the FDA-mandated studies are giving physicians the right information.

In a packed session at the 75th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, the lead investigator told attendees how a matchstick-size device delivered exenatide, producing lower blood glucose levels.

A recently published study evaluated patients admitted in hospitals in Canada and in the United States for their risk of death within a year of hospitalization.

Patients who received canagliflozin from their health plan showed significant A1C improvement, even though the study group had poor glycemic control despite treatment with multiple therapies. The study period covered the months immediately following FDA approval.