Culture

Cobimetinib (trade name: Cotellic) has been approved since November 2015 in combination with vemurafenib for the treatment of adults with advanced, i.e. metastatic or unresectable, melanoma with a BRAF V600 mutation. In a dossier assessment from March 2016, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) found both advantages and disadvantages of cobimetinib in combination with vemurafenib in comparison with the appropriate comparator therapy vemurafenib alone. This resulted in an indication of a minor added benefit.

TAMPA, Fla. (June 6, 2016) - Moffitt Cancer Center will present results of the phase 3 NETTER-1 study, showing clinically meaningful and significant results for Lutathera (77Lu-DOTA0-Tyr3-Octreotate) in patients with metastatic midgut neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). The data will be presented Monday, June 6, 2016 during the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago.

CHAPEL HILL-Financial pressures kept cancer patients from filling prescription medications and attending their doctors' visits, University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers found in a new study.

More than one-in-four cancer patients surveyed reported they had to pay more for medical care than they could afford, and 18 percent of those patients said they were unable to afford prescription medications.

CHICAGO - More precise dosing methods and cellular engineering techniques show promise in the effort to improve treatment of aggressive cancers with personalized cellular therapies, according to new studies from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

In the first year that two Florida laws aimed at curbing opioid prescriptions were in effect, the state's top opioid prescribers wrote significantly fewer prescriptions of this type of pain medication, a new analysis led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds.

Johns Hopkins scientists who indirectly investigated the blood sugar effects of 10 (out of 32 selected) commercial weight loss programs say a few show promise of benefit for diabetic patients, but far more rigorous research is needed before doctors can wholeheartedly recommend them.

How can a smart application recognise and reason about a human's purposeful activities in order to be able to coach in a purposeful way? Esteban Guerrero at Umeå University in Sweden presents new computer-based methods for this that are based on activity-centric and argument-based theories.

A Johns Hopkins study on data from more than 7,000 older Americans has found that those who show signs of probable dementia but are not yet formally diagnosed are nearly twice as likely as those with such a diagnosis to engage in potentially unsafe activities, such as driving, cooking, and managing finances and medications.

WASHINGTON, DC, June 1, 2016 -- There's a stark and troubling way that incarceration diminishes the ability of a former inmate to empathize with a loved one behind bars, but existing sociological theories fail to capture it, Vanderbilt University sociologists have found.

WASHINGTON, DC, May 25, 2016 -- A new study suggests that psychotherapists discriminate against prospective patients who are black or working class.

"Although I expected to find racial and class-based disparities, the magnitude of the discrimination working-class therapy seekers faced exceeded my grimmest expectations," said Heather Kugelmass, a doctoral student in sociology at Princeton University and the author of the study.

Two studies published online by JAMA Cardiology examine the usefulness of a high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assay to help identify or exclude the diagnosis of a heart attack for patients reporting to an emergency department with chest pain.

The majority of patients prefer their dermatologists to be dressed in professional attire with a white coat, according to an article published online by JAMA Dermatology.

Patient perceptions of their physicians may affect outcomes so it is possible that physician attire may affect those outcomes.

Robert S. Kirsner, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and coauthors surveyed the attitudes of dermatology patients (261 were surveyed and 255 participated and completed enough questions to be included).

For women, barriers to physical activity can vary by weight, according to new study by Dartmouth researchers

Since 1999, the use of opioids for pain management has quadrupled in the USA, resulting in what is now well known as the 'opioid epidemic' -- too many Americans are now unnecessarily reliant on the drugs and opioid-related overdoses have rocketed.

Archaeologists studying the distribution of ancient rice believe they may be close to solving one of the enduring mysteries of the ancient world - how people of South East Asian origin ended up living on the African island of Madagascar, 6,000 km away.