(Press-News.org) RESEARCH SUMMARY
Study Title: Belzutifan Versus Everolimus for Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma
Publication: New England Journal of Medicine, August 22, 2024
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute authors: Toni K. Choueiri, MD
Summary: The LITESPARK-005 phase 3 clinical enrolled 746 patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) who had progressed after treatment with both an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) and an anti-angiogenic therapy. Patients were randomized to receive treatment with either belzutifan, a HIF-2α inhibitor, or everolimus. Overabundant HIF-2α is associated with increased cancer-driving activity. At the second interim analysis of this study, after a median of 25.7 months, patients taking belzutifan were 25% less likely to have progressed compared with those taking everolimus. Results were presented at the annual European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in 2023 and are now published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Significance: Based on the evidence from this open-label, randomized, active-controlled trial, belzutifan was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) following standard treatment with an ICI or anti-angiogenic therapy. This approval of a HIF-2α inhibitor meets a need for drugs with novel therapeutic mechanisms in advanced RCC.
Funding: Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC
Contact: Victoria Warren, 617-939-5531, victoria_warren@dfci.harvard.edu
END
Pivotal study supports belzutifan approval for patients with advanced kidney cancer
2024-08-21
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Next time you beat a virus, thank your microbial ancestors
2024-08-21
When you get infected with a virus, some of the first weapons your body deploys to fight it were passed down to us from our microbial ancestors billions of years ago. According to new research from The University of Texas at Austin, two key elements of our innate immune system came from a group of microbes called Asgard archaea.
Specifically, viperins and argonautes, two proteins that are known to play important roles in the immune systems of all complex life — from insects to plants to humans — came from the Asgard archaea. Versions of these defense proteins are also present in bacteria, but the versions in complex life forms are ...
Two UCSB professors selected by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to be Experimental Physics Investigators
2024-08-21
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — UC Santa Barbara professors Andrew Jayich and Jon Schuller have been selected by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to be part of the 2024 cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators. They join 17 other mid-career researchers from around the country, each receiving a five-year, $1.25 million grant to pursue research goals.
“This initiative is designed to support novel and potentially high-payoff projects that will advance the field of physics but might be hard to fund through traditional funding sources,” said Theodore ...
Study of pythons could lead to new therapies for heart disease, other illnesses
2024-08-21
In the first 24 hours after a python devours its massive prey, its heart grows 25%, its cardiac tissue softens dramatically, and the organ squeezes harder and harder to more than double its pulse. Meanwhile, a vast collection of specialized genes kicks into action to help boost the snake’s metabolism fortyfold. Two weeks later, after its feast has been digested, all systems return to normal—its heart remaining just slightly larger, and even stronger, than before.
This extraordinary process, described by CU Boulder researchers this week in the journal PNAS, could ultimately inspire novel treatments for a common human heart condition called cardiac fibrosis, in which ...
Study finds no link between migraine and Parkinson’s disease
2024-08-21
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2024
MINNEAPOLIS – Contrary to previous research, a new study of female participants finds no link between migraine and the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. The study is published in the August 21, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
“These results are reassuring for women who have migraine, which itself causes many burdens, that they don’t have to worry about an increased risk ...
How personality traits might interact to affect self-control
2024-08-21
Neuroticism may moderate the relationship between certain personality traits and self-control, and the interaction effects appear to differ by the type of self-control, according to a study published August 21, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Fredrik Nilsen from the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Defence University, Norway, and colleagues.
Self-control is important for mental and physical health, and certain personality traits are linked to the trait. Previous studies suggest that conscientiousness and extraversion enhance self-control, whereas neuroticism hampers it. However, the link between personality ...
US Congress members’ wealth statistically linked with ancestors’ slaveholding practices
2024-08-21
Per a new study, as of April 2021, US Congress members whose ancestors enslaved 16 or more people had a net worth that was five times higher than that of legislators whose ancestors did not have slaves. Neil Sehgal of the University of Pennsylvania, US, and Ashwini Sehgal of Case Western Reserve University, US present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 21, 2024.
Prior research has linked slavery’s intergenerational effects to contemporary inequality, poverty, education, voting behavior, and life expectancy in the US However, the extent to which past slavery in the US contributes to today’s social and economic conditions remains ...
Following a Mediterranean diet may be associated with reduced risk of COVID-19 infection, per systematic review
2024-08-21
Following a Mediterranean diet may be associated with reduced risk of COVID-19 infection, per systematic review, although it's unclear if the diet is also associated with reduced symptoms and severity of illness.
####
Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0301564
Article Title: Relevance of Mediterranean diet as a nutritional strategy in diminishing COVID-19 risk: A systematic review
Author Countries: Indonesia
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...
Homicide rates are a major factor in the gap between Black and White life expectancy
2024-08-21
Homicide is a major reason behind lower and more variable reduction in life expectancy for Black rather than White men in recent years, according to a new study published August 21, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Michael Light and Karl Vachuska of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a staggering drop in U.S. life expectancy and substantially widened Black-White disparities in lifespan. It also coincided with the largest one-year increase in the U.S. homicide rate in more than a century, with Black men bearing the brunt of these. Despite these trends, there has been limited research on the contribution ...
Human-wildlife overlap expected to increase across more than half of land on Earth by 2070
2024-08-21
ANN ARBOR—As the human population grows, more than half of Earth's land will experience an increasing overlap between humans and animals by 2070, according to a University of Michigan study.
Greater human-wildlife overlap could lead to more conflict between people and animals, say the U-M researchers. But understanding where the overlap is likely to occur—and which animals are likely to interact with humans in specific areas—will be crucial information for urban planners, conservationists and countries that have pledged international conservation commitments. Their findings ...
Freeze-frame: U of A researchers develop world's fastest microscope that can see electrons in motion
2024-08-21
Imagine owning a camera so powerful it can take freeze-frame photographs of a moving electron – an object traveling so fast it could circle the Earth many times in a matter of a second. Researchers at the University of Arizona have developed the world's fastest electron microscope that can do just that.
They believe their work will lead to groundbreaking advancements in physics, chemistry, bioengineering, materials sciences and more.
"When you get the latest version of a smartphone, it comes with a better camera," said Mohammed Hassan, associate professor of physics and optical sciences. "This transmission electron microscope is ...