Author Archives: Celine

New Drug of Choice for Treatment of Cancer-Associated Venous Thromboembolism (VTE)

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It is well known that cancer patients are at a higher risk of developing blood clots. A new randomized clinical trial demonstrated that apixaban, a direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC), was as effective as dalteparin, a low molecular weight heparin given by injection, for the treatment of cancer-associated VTE, without increasing the risk of major bleeding. The study, named the Caravaggio Trial, enrolled 1,170 patients from 119 centers across Europe, the USA, and Israel.

The results were presented by Professor Giancarlo Agnelli at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC). The congress was held virtually on March 28-30, 2020. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 29, 2020. 

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently updated (August 2019) its Clinical Practice Guideline for Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis and Treatment in Patients with Cancer. Apixaban was included in the updated guideline published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.  

Mitochondria Found in Blood Might Bring New Tools for Early Cancer Detection

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What is blood made of? While you may think that this question has already been well answered, French researchers discovered the presence of a new component in the blood. 

In a breakthrough study published in The Faseb Journal, the authors report their discovery of the presence of fully functional, respiratory competent, extracellular mitochondria in blood. Prior to this study only cell‐derived mitochondrial components have been found in the extracellular space. Interestingly, Mitochondria seem to be present in large numbers: “We estimate that there are between 200 000 and 3.7 million cell-free intact mitochondria per mL of plasma”.

This discovery may have implications for cancer diagnosis. As mentioned in Science Daily, “the research team is now devoting its attention to evaluating the extracellular mitochondria as biomarkers in non-invasive prenatal diagnosis and cancer.”

Both plasma of healthy individuals and cell culture media contain structurally intact mitochondria. Fluorescence microscopy images of the MitoTracker Green stained 16gP from PPAP plasma A, SW620 CCCM B, and DLD-1 CCCM C, Electron microscopy images of the 16gP from of a PPAP plasma D, SW620 CCCM E, and DLD-1 CCCM F. From: Al Amir Dache, Z., Otandault, A., Tanos, R., Pastor, B., Meddeb, R., Sanchez, C., … & El Messaoudi, S. (2019). Blood contains circulating cell‐free respiratory competent mitochondria. The FASEB Journal.

 

Top 5 Things to Know About the New PubMed

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The new PubMed is coming in 2020, and we are here to help you navigate the new interface. Here are five highlights:

  • Improved mobile experience: You can now enjoy all PubMed’s functionality and features on your tablet or mobile device.
  • Sort Order: “Best Match” is the default sort order for search results. It uses an algorithm to show the most relevant results first. PubMed lets you easily switch to “Most Recent”. Your browser will remember your sorting preference for any following web sessions (except if you clear your browser cache). As a personal preference, I like to toggle back and forth between both options, relevancy is important, but I also don’t want to miss any new studies.
  • Citation: A great new feature allows you to copy and paste the citation of an article using the action “Cite”. You can choose from four citation styles: AMA, MLA, APA, or NLM.
  • Enhanced retrieval of synonyms, plural forms, and British/American spelling: Please note that while this is a very convenient feature, PubMed may find keywords that are irrelevant to your search. For instance, when searching for the keyword “Nurse”, PubMed will automatically search for the keywords nurse, nurses, nursing, but also the synonyms breastfeeding(s), breastfeeder(s), lactation(s), lactating(s), and lactators. If your search retrieves too many irrelevant results, we will be happy to meet with you to demonstrate how to turn off synonyms retrieval. Come to one of our classes or schedule a consultation with one of us.
  • Enhanced data discovery: PubMed added a new filter “Associated Data”, allowing you to retrieve articles with supplemental data from the following data repositories: clinicaltrials.gov, GenBank, figshare, and Dryad.

The new PubMed will become the default in spring 2020. The legacy version will run for several months in parallel before being fully retired. If you would like to familiarize yourself with the new PubMed interface, join us in one of our classes.