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

Weight loss interventions associated with improvements in several symptoms of PCOS

2024-11-04
(Press-News.org) Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 4 November 2024    

@Annalsofim         
Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.         
----------------------------         

1. Weight loss interventions associated with improvements in several symptoms of PCOS

Abstract:  https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M23-3179 

URL goes live when the embargo lifts          

A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) found that weight-loss interventions were associated with improvements in some polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) symptoms, including improvement in menstrual frequency, and could be considered a routine treatment option for patients with PCOS. According to the researchers, this is the first review to also show that weight loss interventions were associated with a clinically significant improvement in menstrual frequency, an important outcome identified by those living with PCOS and an indicator for subsequent fertility. This study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

 

Researchers at the University of Oxford comprehensively searched several scientific research databases for RCTs from database inception until June 2024 comparing interventions aiming to reduce weight against usual care or low-intensity weight-loss interventions in people with PCOS. The researchers conducted this review to address the gap in evidence quantifying the impact of weight loss on the management of PCOS, which makes it particularly challenging for clinicians to advise the potential impacts of weight loss interventions. Pairs of independent reviewers screened the studies and analyzed the impact of weight-intervention on metabolic markers, hormonal markers, gynecological markers and quality of life compared to offering no additional care, usual care (metformin, oral contraceptives, standard advice) or a lower-intensity weight loss intervention (advice for weight loss without support). Interventions included behavioral interventions (diet or physical activity), current or previously licensed weight loss pharmacotherapy (or those which share a class-effect), bariatric surgery, or combinations of such interventions. The researchers also spoke with 36 women who have PCOS to better inform their selection of primary outcomes and presentation of findings. The researchers found that weight loss interventions were associated with greater reductions in glycemic control and hormonal markers including the free androgen index (FAI). These findings indicate that weight loss interventions may be an effective tool for PCOS management in applied clinical settings, and clinicians could use these results to counsel patients with PCOS on the improvements in PCOS markers after weight loss and direct them towards appropriate interventions. 

 

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. To speak with corresponding author Jadine Scragg, BSc, MSci, PhD, please email jadine.scragg@phc.ox.ac.uk.

----------------------------    

2. Policies assuring safe practice by late-career physicians vary widely among health care organizations

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-24-00829

URL goes live when the embargo lifts   

A mixed-methods study found that variations in policies developed to assure safe practice by late-career physicians (LCPs) makes it difficult for these programs to reach their full potential. Interviews conducted with health care organization leaders responsible for implementing such programs revealed varying levels of successes and frustrations. This study is important because it highlights the need for better physician acceptance and improved program rigor to meet policy objectives. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

 

LCPs, or physicians working beyond age 65 to 75 years, may be at higher risk for delivering unsafe care. To oversee LCPs, some health care organizations have adopted LCP policies requiring cognitive, physical, and practice performance screening assessments. However, little is known about the content or implementation of these policies.

 

Researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine studied LCP policies at 29 health care organizations and interviewed 21 physicians in charge of those policies to characterize key program features and physician perspectives. LCP policies were assessed for rationale and process for adoption, whom the policy covers, assessment methods, actions taken on assessment results, confidentiality and procedural fairness protections, and who executes policy components. The researchers found that the LCP policies at all health care organizations applied to 100 percent of physicians seeking new or renewed clinical privileges and required an age-based screening assessment, with a median starting age of 70 years. Of those, 79.3% required reassessment every two years, and almost all required a physical examination (89.7%) and/or a neuropsychological examination (82.8%). Potential follow-up actions varied widely after a concerning LCP assessment, and 7 policies did not include potential actions after a concerning finding. Many organization leaders cited patient safety as the primary reason for LCP policy implementation and said the top challenges when implementing LCP programs included pushback from physicians, logistical difficulties with program rollout and doubts about predictive accuracy of the assessments. Outcomes data across LCP programs was limited, but the respondents noted the primary effect of the programs was voluntary retirements, with one organization reporting that over a quarter of physicians eligible for the assessment resigned before getting screened.

 

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. To speak with corresponding author Andrew A. White, MD, please email andwhite@uw.edu.

----------------------------         

3. Researchers report first published case of a patient with treatment-emergent neuroendocrine prostate cancer who showed a remarkable response to an anti-HER2 antibody-drug conjugate

Abstract:  https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-24-01409 

URL goes live when the embargo lifts   

A new case report published in Annals of Internal Medicine describes the success of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) antibody-drug conjugate trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) in a patient with HER2-expressing treatment-emergent neuroendocrine prostate cancer (t-NEPC). t-NEPC is an aggressive subtype of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), and prior clinical trials with HER2-targeted therapies for mCRPC have failed to show meaningful results.

 

Researchers from Washington DC VA Medical Center and The George Washington University detail the case of a 60-year-old Air Force Veteran diagnosed with high-volume metastatic prostate cancer in March of 2019. He was first treated with androgen-deprivation therapy and docetaxel, but tumor progression occurred. He received six additional therapies, including participation in three clinical trials, over the course of four years. His response to all treatments was short-lived and followed by rapid disease progression, and he subsequently developed brain metastases. Tissue biopsy confirmed the patient now had t-NEPC, and testing for HER2 by immunohistochemistry showed a strong expression in both his prostate tumor and brain metastasis. In February 2024, he started off-label treatment with T-DXd. After 4 cycles, a 57% overall reduction in tumor volume was seen across sites, including the brain. His clinical status improved significantly despite being told several months before starting T-DXd that he should transition to hospice care due to a lack of treatment options. The case suggests that T-DXd has anti-tumor activity in HER2-expressing mCRPC, including aggressive subtypes like t-NEPC. The researchers also note that this case highlights the need for testing HER2 expression using immunohistochemistry, which is not routinely done for patients with advanced prostate cancer to better identify patients who might benefit from T-DXd treatment. As of October 2024, patient is clinically doing well.

 

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. To speak with corresponding author Maneesh Jain, MD, MS, please email Katelyn Deckelbaum at katelyn.deckelbaum@gwu.edu. 

----------------------------    

4. Patients outside metropolitan areas often travel significantly more than 20 minutes for primary care visit

New data on patient travel patterns could lead to more accurate geographic market definitions

Abstract:  https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-24-00857 

URL goes live when the embargo lifts       

A cross-sectional study of U.S. healthcare utilization survey data provided a nationally representative measure of patient travel patterns across provider types. The data can inform more accurate choices of geographic market definitions to monitor provider competition, access to care, outcomes and costs. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine. 

 

Researchers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the University of Maryland School of Public Health studied data from 2018 to 2021 from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to better understand patient travel patterns and assess to what degree commonly used geographic definitions of health care markets capture travel patterns. The researchers used geocoding software to calculate travel time between patient homes and healthcare provider addresses, including office visits, emergency department (ED) visits, and inpatient stays. They found that the median travel time for physician office visits was about 14 minutes inside and 28 minutes outside metropolitan statistical aeras.  The median travel time for physician office visits to specialists was nearly 42 minutes outside of metropolitan statistical areas.   The median travel time for ED visits was 13.6 minutes and for inpatients stays was 18.1 minutes. Only half of primary care visits fell within a primary care service area (PCSA), while nearly 40% of inpatient stays fell outside of defined hospital service areas.  Based on the data collected, the researchers found that some geographic market definitions exclude much of the care utilized by residents. This data can inform choices of market definitions and provide national benchmarks for patient travel time. 

 

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. To speak with corresponding author Sandra L. Decker, PhD, please email Caryn McManus at Caryn.McManus@ahrq.hhs.gov.

---------------------------- 

 

 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Federal government may be overpaying for veterans’ health care in Medicare Advantage plans

2024-11-04
Key points: Approximately one in five of the veterans enrolled in a high-veteran Medicare Advantage (MA) plan did not incur any Medicare services paid by MA within a given year and instead received their health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) paid more $1 billion to MA plans for enrolling VA-enrollees who did not utilize Medicare services, with nearly 20% of that funding directed disproportionately to high-veteran MA plans. The ...

Researchers awarded $2.5 million grant to increase lung cancer screenings in underserved communities

2024-11-04
A multidisciplinary team of experts in lung cancer screening and implementation science from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health was awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, an independent charitable organization, to spearhead a new initiative aimed at reducing disparities in lung cancer screening across Los Angeles County.  The award supports a new program called ...

New trigger proposed for record-smashing 2022 Tonga eruption

2024-11-04
American Geophysical Union  4 November 2024 AGU Release No. 24-35 For Immediate Release   This press release is available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/new-trigger-tonga-eruption/ New trigger proposed for record-smashing 2022 Tonga eruption Previously unstudied data from a seismic wave, detected 750 kilometers from the seamount, may bolster tsunami early-warning systems. AGU press contact:   Liza Lester, +1 (202) 777-7494, news@agu.org (UTC-5 hours)  Contact information for the researchers:  Mie Ichihara, University of Tokyo, ichihara@eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp, (UTC+9 hours) WASHINGTON — Fifteen minutes before the ...

Lupus Research Alliance announces Lupus Research Highlights at ACR Convergence 2024

2024-11-04
Lupus Research Alliance Announces Lupus Research Highlights at ACR Convergence 2024 Sixteen presentations of preclinical studies funded by the Lupus Research Alliance (LRA) to advance understanding of lupus and potential treatment pathways, including four oral presentations Two reports by Lupus Therapeutics, the clinical affiliate of the LRA, and the Lupus Clinical Investigators Network (LuCIN) on promoting equity in lupus clinical trials, and identifying trial barriers and solutions Fifteen industry-sponsored clinical research studies supported by Lupus Therapeutics and LuCIN, including positive results from the late-breaking Phase 3 dapirolizumab pegol trial ...

Satellite imagery may help protect coastal forests from climate change

2024-11-04
Sea-level rise caused by climate change poses a serious and often unpredictable threat to coastal forests, and new tools are needed to help mitigate damage and allocate conservation resources.   A new study from North Carolina State University and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) details how satellite imagery may help identify forested areas that are being transformed into marshes and open water by sea-level rise, a process known as regime change. Marcelo Ardón, associate professor at NC State and co-author of a paper on the study, ...

The secrets of baseball's magic mud

The secrets of baseballs magic mud
2024-11-04
EMBARGOED UNTIL MONDAY NOVEMBER 4 AT 3:00 P.M. ET The unique properties of baseball’s famed “magic” mud have never been scientifically quantified — until now. In a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) and School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) reveal what makes the magic mud so special. “It spreads like a skin cream and grips like sandpaper,” says Shravan Pradeep, the paper’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher in the labs of Douglas J. ...

Toddlers understand concept of possibility

Toddlers understand concept of possibility
2024-11-04
Children too young to know words like “impossible” and “improbable” nonetheless understand how possibility works, finds new work with two- and three-year-olds. The findings, the first to demonstrate that young children distinguish between improbable and impossible events, and learn significantly better after impossible occurrences, is newly published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Even young toddlers already think about the world in terms of possibilities,” said co-author Lisa Feigenson, co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Laboratory for Child Development. “Adults do this all the time and here we wanted ...

Small reductions to meat production in wealthier countries may help fight climate change, new analysis concludes

Small reductions to meat production in wealthier countries may help fight climate change, new analysis concludes
2024-11-04
Scientists and environmental activists have consistently called for drastic reductions in meat production as a way to reduce emissions and, in doing so, combat climate change. However, a new analysis concludes that a smaller reduction, borne by wealthier nations, could remove 125 billion tons of carbon dioxide—exceeding the total number of global fossil fuel emissions over the past three years—from the atmosphere.  Small cutbacks in higher-income countries—approximately 13% of total production—would reduce the amount of land needed for cattle grazing, the researchers note, allowing forests to naturally ...

Scientists determine why some patients don’t respond well to wet macular degeneration treatment, show how new experimental drug can bridge gap

Scientists determine why some patients don’t respond well to wet macular degeneration treatment, show how new experimental drug can bridge gap
2024-11-04
**EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL NOV. 4 AT 3:00 P.M. EST** A new study from researchers at Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine explains not only why some patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (or “wet” AMD) fail to have vision improvement with treatment, but also how an experimental drug could be used with existing wet AMD treatments to save vision. Wet AMD, one of two kinds of AMD, is a progressive eye condition caused by an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing tissue in ...

Did the world's best-preserved dinosaurs really die in 'Pompeii-type' events?

Did the worlds best-preserved dinosaurs really die in Pompeii-type events?
2024-11-04
Between about 120 million and 130 million years ago, during the age of dinosaurs, temperate forests and lakes hosted a lively ecosystem in what is now northeast China. Diverse fossils from that time remained pretty much undisturbed until the 1980s, when villagers started finding exceptionally preserved creatures, which fetched high prices from collectors and museums. This started a fossil gold rush. Both locals and scientists have now dug so much, their work can be seen from space―perhaps the most extensive paleontological excavations anywhere. By the 1990s, it was clear that the so-called Yixian ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Twisted Edison: Bright, elliptically polarized incandescent light

Structural cell protein also directly regulates gene transcription

Breaking boundaries: Researchers isolate quantum coherence in classical light systems

Brain map clarifies neuronal connectivity behind motor function

Researchers find compromised indoor air in homes following Marshall Fire

Months after Colorado's Marshall Fire, residents of surviving homes reported health symptoms, poor air quality

Identification of chemical constituents and blood-absorbed components of Shenqi Fuzheng extract based on UPLC-triple-TOF/MS technology

'Glass fences' hinder Japanese female faculty in international research, study finds

Vector winds forecast by numerical weather prediction models still in need of optimization

New research identifies key cellular mechanism driving Alzheimer’s disease

Trends in buprenorphine dispensing among adolescents and young adults in the US

Emergency department physicians vary widely in their likelihood of hospitalizing a patient, even within the same facility

Firearm and motor vehicle pediatric deaths— intersections of age, sex, race, and ethnicity

Association of state cannabis legalization with cannabis use disorder and cannabis poisoning

Gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia and future neurological disorders

Adoption of “hospital-at-home” programs remains concentrated among larger, urban, not-for-profit and academic hospitals

Unlocking the mysteries of the human gut

High-quality nanodiamonds for bioimaging and quantum sensing applications

New clinical practice guideline on the process for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease or a related form of cognitive impairment or dementia

Evolution of fast-growing fish-eating herring in the Baltic Sea

Cryptographic protocol enables secure data sharing in the floating wind energy sector

Can drinking coffee or tea help prevent head and neck cancer?

Development of a global innovative drug in eye drop form for treating dry age-related macular degeneration

Scientists unlock secrets behind flowering of the king of fruits

Texas A&M researchers illuminate the mysteries of icy ocean worlds

Prosthetic material could help reduce infections from intravenous catheters

Can the heart heal itself? New study says it can

Microscopic discovery in cancer cells could have a big impact

Rice researchers take ‘significant leap forward’ with quantum simulation of molecular electron transfer

Breakthrough new material brings affordable, sustainable future within grasp

[Press-News.org] Weight loss interventions associated with improvements in several symptoms of PCOS