Maggie L. Shaw

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has contributed to more US patient deaths than the next 60 reportable infectious diseases combined. The United States Preventive Services Task Force has issued updated guidelines on screening for HCV that account for the larger proportion of this patient group that now includes persons who inject drugs, as well as the shift from interferon-based therapy to regimens composed of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) medications.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) occurs at a higher rate in individuals who have HIV compared with those who do not, and it has a global incidence of more than 380 million people. The progressive lung disease is also diagnosed at a younger age in HIV-positive persons compared with their HIV-negative counterparts, and higher rates of smoking may be to blame.

Updated results from the EASEL study show that lower risks of cardiovascular (CV) events, CV death, and CV mortality accompany initiation of canagliflozin, a sodium glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor, in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and high CV risk compared with use of other drugs.

Health-related quality of life (QOL) improved in 54% of patients 18 years or older with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (R/R DLBCL) after therapy with tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah; Novartis), one of 2 FDA-approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. The patients’ general health, vitality, physical function, and social function improved the most.

Recommendations abound for when women at average risk for breast cancer should begin yearly mammography screening, ranging from age 40 to 50. Questions remain, however, on the optimal age at which to stop. However, with over 50% of women older than age 75 still undergoing mammography, is there a truly safe age at which to stop what has been shown to be a life-saving practice if it does not decrease their mortality from breast cancer?

Circulation, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association, just released its fourth annual Go Red for Women issue, in which researchers from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai note the stark disparities in how heart disease manifests in women and men. For women, sudden cardiac death is often the first sign they even have heart disease.

Radium-223’s (Ra-223) low levels of alpha particle radiation induce double-strand DNA breaks, which leads to cell apoptosis. Sipuleucel-T (SipT), which is an immunotherapy manufactured from a patient’s peripheral blood mononuclear cells, activates T cells to spur an immune response. Both are used to treat bone-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Study data suggest a synergistic immune effect when Ra-223 is added to treatment with SipT.

Close to 80% of HIV-positive individuals are shown to be virally suppressed through their most recent test results, according to data from 2016 through 2018, as well as 32% to 63% of adults older than 24 years. Youth with a new HIV diagnosis, however, come in at only 12%.

Flow cytometry (FCM), next-generation sequencing, (NGS), and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are the 3 most common methods clinicians use to diagnose minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who have undergone chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy. MRD can be found both in bone marrow via aspiration and peripheral blood circulation through a draw.

The 5-year survival rate for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is about 77%. The recurrence rate is highest in the first 3 years after treatment, but falls off at the 5-year mark—although the survival rate at this time point tends to be lower. Because TNBC cells lack the hormone receptors for estrogen and progesterone and do not overexpress the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 gene, treatment often involves chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Targeted treatments are not used with TNBC.

Among the general population of the United States, 14.5% of HIV-positive individuals do not know their disease status. This rate increases to 51.5% of 13- to 24-year-olds, among whom men who have sex with men account for 80% of new HIV infections.

There are more than 36 million smokers in the United States today, and most (70%) admit they want to quit. Individuals who decide to quit see a smaller risk of heart disease within 1 to 2 years, along with reduced risks of stroke and peripheral vascular disease. However, annual deaths from smoking still exceed 480,000 in the United States, where over 16 million live with smoking-related diseases that include infertility, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In 2017, heart failure contributed to 1 in 8 deaths. This inability of the heart to function at its optimal level led to an estimated $30.7 billion in annual healthcare costs in 2012, including healthcare services, medicines, and missed work.

Anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor natural killer (CAR NK) cells, derived from donor umbilical cord blood, produced a 73% objective response rate in 11 patients with lymphoid tumors who received just 1 dose of the infused therapy, with no occurrences of cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity, in preliminary study results out of MD Anderson. Seven patients had a complete remission.

Antiretroviral treatment (ART) is the regimen mainstay for everyone who has HIV, irrespective of infection duration. More than twice as many options for ART were available in 2018 as were offered in 2012—but this did not equal cheaper prices. Between 2012 and 2018, the average wholesale price for initial ART jumped 34% for most people with HIV.

Three proteasome inhibitors (PIs) are approved for patients with multiple myeloma (MM): Bortezomib, a first-in class PI, fights both newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory MM (RRMM); carfilzomib, a next-generation PI, treats RRMM as both a monotherapy and in combination; and ixazomib, the first oral PI, treats RRMM in combination. PIs work by preventing the proteasomes in cancerous plasma cells from “recycling” what is essentially garbage protein.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells are a patient’s own, harvested and reengineered to attack specific malignant cells. They were initially developed using knowledge gleaned from allogeneic stem cell transplants: that donor mature immune cells can attack healthy cells in the recipient patient.

Participants in Last Gift, an end-of-life HIV research program from UC San Diego, donate their blood and their bodies so researchers can uncover all the places that HIV hides, to both fight the disease and stop it. Before each autopsy, the following is read: “From our first breath to our last, each of us tells a unique story. Here, we honor our Last Gift participants for their altruism to further research into HIV and the human condition. We take this moment of silence to honor their gifts and express our gratitude for all the discoveries their selfless donations will yield.”

Heart failure (HF) taxes the American healthcare system by a total of $39.2 billion to $60 billion each year. This amount is expected to increase up to 20% by 2030 and total $70 billion. Worldwide, HF has been diagnosed in 26 million individuals, and this number is rising.

Minimal residual disease (MRD), a measure of how many cancer cells remain in a patient during or following chemotherapy or stem cell transplant, is a potent indicator of whether or not a patient is likely to relapse; recent research probed the associations between MRD status and certain prognostic risk factors in childhood B-lymphoblastic leukemia after both induction and consolidation.

Mucosa-associated invariant T cells (MAIT cells) are a subset of the T-cell population. Their function and activity during the acute stage of HIV infection adds to the knowledge of immune system activation at this stage and could lead to possible new treatment interventions.

Symptom burden, functional ability, and quality of life are necessary considerations when treating hematologic malignancies in older patients.

Reviews of apixaban in active cancer, Medicare costs after CAR T-cell therapy, and the need for financial assistance for novel therapies.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an abnormal thickening of the heart muscle, with causes that include genetic mutations and myofiber disarray (an abnormal heart muscle cell arrangement). Individuals who have this condition are prone to obesity (body mass index, 25 to

The small molecule from BeyondSpring is currently in late-stage clinical development in non–small cell lung cancer and for prevention of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia.

Sickle cell disease is the most common red blood cell disorder in the United States, having been diagnosed in approximately 100,000 African Americans alone. The lack of oxygen from sickle cell buildup can lead to acute pain crises, joint and organ damage, stroke, and reduced life expectancy.

The median time to first intravenous therapy for acute heart failure (AHF) is 3.0 hours in North America compared with 1.2 hours in all other regions, in the International Registry to Assess Medical Practice with Longitudinal Observation for Treatment of Heart Failure. Treatment timing and differences may affect outcomes in patients with AHF.

clonoSEQ, from Adaptive Biotechnologies, is a next-generation sequencing assay with existing Medicare coverage to monitor for minimal residual disease (MRD) in multiple myeloma and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The newest Medicare coverage is for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which takes effect immediately.

Truvada and Descovy are both manufactured by Gilead Sciences and used to treat HIV-1 infection and as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in adult and pediatric patients.

Nigeria has a population of almost 204 million. Of those, 3.1% of adults, or 3.5 million, are living with HIV. The accompanying death anxiety of people living with HIV and AIDS has not been studied in depth.