PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

REACT clinical trial supports new approach of accelerated treatment for Crohn's disease

REACT clinical trial supports new approach of accelerated treatment for Crohn's disease
2014-02-19
(Press-News.org) The final results from an international clinical trial involving nearly 2,000 patients with Crohn's disease support the use of a new management strategy referred to as accelerated step-care as a best practice for the care of active Crohn's disease. The REACT (Randomized Evaluation of an Algorithm for Crohn's Treatment) study, led by Robarts Clinical Trials at Western University (London, Canada) provides valuable new insights for community gastroenterologists which should benefit patients. The results of the study will be presented at the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) annual congress taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 20-22, 2014.

Crohn's disease is a chronic, potentially debilitating, condition of the gastrointestinal tract which can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and weight loss among other symptoms. Well over five million people globally are affected by Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Dr. Brian Feagan, CEO and Senior Scientific Director of Robarts Clinical Trials and a professor in the Division of Gastroenterology at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, says the medical management of Crohn's disease has undergone important changes over the past two decades with the introduction of TNF antagonists such as adalimumab and infliximab. The current treatment approach features sequential and incremental treatment intensification based on symptoms. In contrast, an accelerated step-care approach involves the early introduction of combined immunosuppression in high risk patients, which has been shown to induce and maintain remission, reduce the use of corticosteroids, and heal intestinal ulceration in those who fail conventional treatment.

Subsequent research, performed in both Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis, indicated that TNF antagonists work best when: 1) used in combination with antimetabolites (e.g., azathioprine, methotrexate) and 2) introduced early in the course of the disease. Controlled studies such as CHARM (Crohn's Trial of the Fully Human Antibody Adalimumab for Remission Maintenance) have also demonstrated that TNF antagonist-based regimens can reduce the rate of surgery and hospitalization in comparison to conventional therapy.

"However, adoption of these key concepts by community gastroenterologists has been relatively slow," says Dr. Feagan. "This is primarily because many believe that the safety and efficacy of these agents may not be generalizable to their individual practice, since they were tested in academic centers. The REACT study was designed to address these concerns."

In this cluster-randomized trial, 39 community gastroenterology practices in Canada or Belgium were randomly assigned to a conventional management approach or to an accelerated step-care algorithm that featured early use of combined adalimumab/antimetabolite therapy. Within practices, up to 60 consecutive patients were entered and evaluated for 24 months to determine whether the implementation of an accelerated step-care approach would improve the management of Crohn's disease in comparison to conventional management methods.

Final results from the REACT clinical trial showed the proportion of patients in remission at 12 months was marginally greater in the group assigned to accelerated step-care. However, significant and clinically important reduction in rates for hospitalization, complications and surgeries were observed in practices assigned to early combined immunosuppression up to 24 months.

The study reached several important conclusions: Early introduction of combined therapy in the community may be both feasible and safe Use of this paradigm may be more effective than conventional management for the prevention of disease–related complications, surgeries and hospitalizations Reliance on symptoms exclusively to guide therapy may be a sub-optimal management strategy

INFORMATION:

Support for the REACT clinical trial was provided by AbbVie.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
REACT clinical trial supports new approach of accelerated treatment for Crohn's disease

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

ORNL microscopy system delivers real-time view of battery electrochemistry

ORNL microscopy system delivers real-time view of battery electrochemistry
2014-02-19
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Feb. 19, 2014 -- Using a new microscopy method, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory can image and measure electrochemical processes in batteries in real time and at nanoscale resolution. Scientists at ORNL used a miniature electrochemical liquid cell that is placed in a transmission electron microscope to study an enigmatic phenomenon in lithium-ion batteries called the solid electrolyte interphase, or SEI, as described in a study published in Chemical Communications. The SEI is a nanometer-scale film that forms ...

Many Texans struggling to pay for health service as Affordable Care Act is about to launch

2014-02-19
HOUSTON – (Feb. 19, 2014) – Many Texans were struggling to pay for basic health services on the eve of the launch of the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Marketplace, according to a report released today by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Episcopal Health Foundation. The report also found that even those with health insurance reported dissatisfaction with the cost and availability of services. Most Texans expect more of the same in 2014. The Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS)-Texas report is based on the HRMS, a national project that ...

Molecular aberration signals cancer

2014-02-19
Several scientists, including one at Simon Fraser University, have made a discovery that strongly links a little understood molecule, which is similar to DNA, to cancer and cancer survival. EMBO Reports, a life sciences journal published by the European Molecular Biology Organization, has just published online the scientists' findings about small non-coding RNAs. While RNA is known to be key to our cells' successful creation of proteins, the role of small non-coding RNAs, a newly discovered cousin of the former, has eluded scientific understanding for the most part. ...

Cell therapy shows remarkable ability to eradicate cancer in clinical study

2014-02-19
NEW YORK, February 19, 2014 — Investigators from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have reported more encouraging news about one of the most exciting methods of cancer treatment today. The largest clinical study ever conducted to date of patients with advanced leukemia found that 88 percent achieved complete remissions after being treated with genetically modified versions of their own immune cells. The results were published today in Science Translational Medicine. "These extraordinary results demonstrate that cell therapy is a powerful treatment for patients who ...

LGBT youth face greater cancer risks, CCNY-led study

2014-02-19
A new study led by City College of New York psychologist Margaret Rosario found that youths of same-sex orientation are more likely to engage in behaviors associated with cancer risk than heterosexuals. The peer-reviewed findings appear in the February 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Titled "Sexual Orientation Disparities in Cancer-Related Risk Behaviors of Tobacco, Alcohol, Sexual Behaviors, and Diet and Physical Activity: Pooled Youth Risk Behavior Surveys," the study pooled YRBS (Youth Risk Behavior Survey) data from 2005 and 2007. The YRBS is ...

Using holograms to improve electronic devices

Using holograms to improve electronic devices
2014-02-19
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (http://www.ucr.edu) — A team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering and Russian Academy of Science have demonstrated a new type of holographic memory device that could provide unprecedented data storage capacity and data processing capabilities in electronic devices. The new type of memory device uses spin waves – a collective oscillation of spins in magnetic materials – instead of the optical beams. Spin waves are advantageous because spin wave devices are compatible with the conventional electronic ...

Statistics research could build consensus around climate predictions

Statistics research could build consensus around climate predictions
2014-02-19
Philadelphia, PA—Vast amounts of data related to climate change are being compiled by research groups all over the world. Data from these many and various sources results in different climate projections; hence, the need arises to combine information across data sets to arrive at a consensus regarding future climate estimates. In a paper published last December in the SIAM Journal on Uncertainty Quantification, authors Matthew Heaton, Tamara Greasby, and Stephan Sain propose a statistical hierarchical Bayesian model that consolidates climate change information ...

Smellizing -- imagining a product's smell -- increases consumer desire, study finds

Smellizing -- imagining a products smell -- increases consumer desire, study finds
2014-02-19
Seeing is believing, but smellizing – a new term for prompting consumers to imagine the smell of a product – could be the next step toward more effective advertising. Researchers came to this conclusion through four studies of products most of us would like to smellize: cookies and cake. Professor of Marketing Maureen Morrin of Temple University's Fox School of Business co-authored Smellizing Cookies and Salivating: A Focus on Olfactory Imagery to examine the impact imagining what a food smells like would have on consumer behavior. "Before we started this project, ...

Discovery by Baylor University researchers sheds new light on the habitat of early apes

Discovery by Baylor University researchers sheds new light on the habitat of early apes
2014-02-19
WACO, Texas (Feb. 18, 2014)-- Baylor University researchers, in collaboration with an international team of scientists, have discovered definitive evidence of the environment inhabited by the early ape Proconsul on Rusinga Island, Kenya. The groundbreaking discovery provides additional information that will help scientists understand and interpret the connection between habitat preferences and the early diversification of the ape-human lineage. Their research findings--published this month in Nature Communications--demonstrate that Proconsul and its primate relative Dendropithecus ...

Graduate student makes major discovery about seal evolution

Graduate student makes major discovery about seal evolution
2014-02-19
Ottawa, February, 19, 2014—In the world of science, one of the most exciting things a researcher can do is pin down an answer to a widely asked question. This experience came early for Carleton University graduate Thomas Cullen, who made a discovery about pinnipeds—the suborder that makes up seals, sea lions and walruses—while doing research for his Master's degree under the supervision of Canadian Museum of Nature palaeontologist Dr. Natalia Rybczynski. His discovery, published the journal Evolution, relates to sexual dimorphism (a large variance in size between males ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Breaking research at ADLM 2025: AI poised to revolutionize Lyme disease testing, treatment

CD4+ T cell-mediated immune drift in biologic treatment of inflammatory skin diseases

Spotlight on technology to protect older Australians from respiratory infections

There’s something in the air

New insights could help phages defeat antibiotic resistant bacteria

New system dramatically speeds the search for polymer materials

Safety of JN.1-updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines

Type 2 diabetes and financial outcomes

A financial toll on patients with type 2 diabetes

Safflower yellow pigments in coronary heart disease: Mechanisms, applications, and future perspectives

TraMA: new RNA-based measure predicts mortality risk and tracks aging

From WebMD to AI chatbots: How innovation has empowered patients to take control of their health

Unravelling antileishmanial mechanisms of phytochemicals: From mitochondrial disruption to immunomodulation

Association for Molecular Pathology announces 2025 award recipients

When light collides with light

Study finds that white students visit college advisers the least, but benefit most in terms of graduation rates and GPA

Science by the millions: How everyday people are revolutionizing global biodiversity research with tech

A bolt is born! Atmospheric events underpinning lightning strikes explained

Using alcohol to reduce the costs of industrial water electrolysis

FAU researchers advise: prescribe high potency statins in treatment, prevention

15 regions chosen for groundbreaking effort to reduce cardiovascular disease

CareQuest Institute for Oral Health to fund year six of the AADOCR Mind the Future Program

Chungnam National University researchers reveal how vitamin D is shown to reduce liver damage by boosting TXNIP activity in cholangiocytes

The key to success: Why university startups don’t perform as well as corporate startups

Muscle “marbling”: Good in steak, bad in our bodies

Thousands more B.C. women chose top-tier birth control after patient costs eliminated

Research reveals genetic weak spot in hard-to-treat cancers

Coolness hits different; now scientists know why

Large-scale study defines genetic architecture of stuttering

Decoding the blue: Advanced Technology realizes potential in harmful algal bloom monitoring

[Press-News.org] REACT clinical trial supports new approach of accelerated treatment for Crohn's disease