Culture

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company, announced today that it has dosed the first patient in a Phase I clinical trial of its lead candidate, JRC-LAMP-vax™ vaccine, at its clinical site in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The humanized antibody ipilimumab (trade name Yervoy®) has been approved since August 2011 for the treatment of adult patients with advanced melanoma (black skin cancer) who have already been treated. The term "advanced" means that the melanoma can no longer be removed by an operation or that metastases have formed. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has examined the added benefit of the drug pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG).

Vandetanib (trade name Caprelsa®) has been approved in Germany since February 2012 for adult patients suffering from a particular form of aggressive thyroid cancer. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has now examined the added benefit of the drug pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG). According to the findings, there is no proof of added benefit, because no data on patient-relevant outcomes for those patients for whom the drug is approved were presented by the drug manufacturer in its dossier.

ANAHEIM, CA. (November 9, 2012) – Peanut allergies are rising among American children and one reason might be due to economic status. According to a new study presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting, greater rates of peanut allergy are found in families with higher economic status. This supports the "hygiene hypothesis" of many allergists.

ANAHEIM, CA. (November 9, 2012) – While it's believed that Nostradamus' prophecies predicted many historical events, his digital successor, the Internet, may be foreseeing the height of allergy suffering. According to allergist Leonard Bielory, M.D., American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) board member, Google search volume is shedding light on the most common allergy symptoms, when searches peak and how they pertain to pollen types.

Twitter, a popular social network and microblogging service, is rapidly being adopted by allergists. A study presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology's (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Nov. 8-13 has found there has been a 470 percent increase in allergist use in just one year. Allergists are primarily using Twitter to educate their patients and the public about allergy-related information. They are also connecting with their peers.

Title: Rapid Growth of Twitter Use by Allergists and Immunologists for Professional Purposes

Epinephrine is the first line of treatment for patients suffering from anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction. A delay in using epinephrine is common in severe food allergic reaction deaths. Yet according to a new study presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Nov. 8-13, only 15 percent of those experiencing anaphylaxis receive epinephrine from paramedics.

Analysis: Stop the silent misdiagnosis: Patients' preferences matter

Patients' preferences are often misinterpreted or ignored in treatment decisions, leading to a "silent misdiagnosis" that is damaging to both doctors and patients, warn experts on bmj.com today.

Preliminary findings from the first trial of a new drug for patients with mesothelioma show that it has some success in preventing the spread of the deadly disease in patients lacking an active tumour suppressor gene called NF2. The study is presented at the 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Dublin, Ireland, today (Friday) [2].

Highlights

• Most patients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a leading cause of kidney failure, have high levels of a factor called suPAR circulating in their blood.
• suPAR levels could help doctors monitor the disease's progression as well as patients' response to different therapies.
• suPAR might be a therapeutic target of future treatments for this difficult-to-treat disease.

Yearly, about 5,000 individuals in the U.S. are diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.

Highlights

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Nov. 8, 2012 – What do a tight, fitted bed sheet and a blood clot in the wrist have in common? Both are associated with a condition called sheet fitting palsy. True to its name, the palsy is reported in those who spend a long period of time repeatedly trying to pull a fitted bed sheet over the corner of a mattress. But it has also been reported in basketball players and in those who do push-ups as exercise.

Decades of extreme weather crippled, and ultimately decimated, first the political culture and later the human population of the ancient Maya, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers that includes two University of California, Davis, scientists.

Physician-researchers from the Cardiac Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia presented new findings on pediatric cardiovascular disease at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2012 in Los Angeles. They described racial disparities in risk factors for sudden cardiac death, imaging modalities and novel approaches to assessing cardiac anomalies, ventricular assist device use, special considerations in syndromes in adult congenital heart disease, changes in immunosuppressive drugs after pediatric heart transplant, and many other topics.

People can lip-read themselves better than they can lip-read others, according to a new study by Nancy Tye-Murray and colleagues from Washington University. Their work, which explores the link between speech perception and speech production, is published online in Springer's Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

Most people cannot read lips - just try watching television with the sound turned off and see how much of a news item you understand. If you see someone speak a sentence without the accompanying sounds, you are unlikely to recognize many words.